Web marketing is a constantly changing forum. Businesses and business owners alike should be up-to-date, focused, and involved in the latest marketing strategies. They should be evaluating the different arenas of web marketing available and develop a plan of attack on how that particular form of marketing can be beneficial to them. It doesn’t matter if it’s email marketing, website marketing, SEO, SEM, media buying, affiliates, or social media. Whatever is out there should be studied and evaluated. Ask the question of how does this work with my business? How about my audience? What does this form of marketing entail? Has it been successful for my competitors? If so, how? I read an article from Forbes today about
social networking through Facebook and Twitter for upper management. Today’s post is going to be about how Facebook and Twitter can work for your business if executed correctly.
Here is a little background on Facebook and Twitter for those unfamiliar with these forums. Facebook is a social networking site where people can sign up and connect with friends and others. It is very similar to MySpace but much cleaner and less spammy. Each person has a profile, can share pictures, links, chat, etc. Businesses can also create their own page about their services and products and people can add it to their profile basically showing that they are a “fan” of that company. Twitter is similar to a mini blog. People and businesses can update with short sentences on what is going on. People use this to update their friends and businesses use this to connect with the audience and promote specials.
Things like Facebook and Twitter tend to be overlooked in businesses because the value in them is not seen. In the view of consumers, transparency is good. A business that involves itself in blogs, Facebook, Twitter, and other forms of social media show their transparency. People enjoy knowing that there are people behind the business. By representing a company with a human face, people feel a much more personalized experienced. Being visible in the social networking world allows the company to communicate at a personal level with its customers. It shows customers that these people care and are human too.
Using Twitter or Facebook, a company is able to see what people are saying about their business, products, and services. Businesses will also gain direct access to its customers to poll about new products, evaluate customer experience, and collect ideas for the next great thing.
However, succeeding through these social networking portals requires certain finesse in speaking to the audience. You should never talk badly about your competitors or anyone else. Doing this shows unprofessionalism and may give you a bad reputation. You should also never pretend to comment as someone else. If you are caught, your credibility will go down the drain. Instead, let your loyal customer support you. If your company provides great services and products, the positive publicity will come naturally. If you are getting negative feedback, this is a source for alleviating any problems.
Make sure you do your research before you dive into any social media network. Be positive, personable, and tasteful and you will see the fruits of your labor grow.
Photo courtesy of 7son75
Throughout the year, there are many different conferences, workshops, and seminars across the US focused on online marketing. These events are an excellent opportunity for marketers and anyone running a web business to network and learn more about the latest trends and strategies in the web space. Attending one of these events can be extremely beneficial for your business. Often times, the cost to attend a conference is quite pricey, especially for small businesses. However, the Online Marketing Summit (OMS) Conference put on by ClickZ should be quite affordable.
