Should a Small Business Use Social Media Marketing?

I've probably received more questions on the topic of social media marketing these last few months than on any other topic. It's all the buzz. So exactly what do I mean by Social Media Marketing (SMM)? It's the use of tools and techniques to more effectively build relationships online. It includes services such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn,Yelp!, and blogs, to name a few.

But before I dig into online social media, consider what's happening with marketing in general. Traditional marketing methods are waning. We've all been reading about the plight of printed newspapers. According to Yahoo Finance, 4 out of the 5 major newspapers are experiencing record declines in circulation. Many have already exited the market. Television viewership is slipping, too. So what's going on?

We're seeing a shift. Recommendations by personal acquaintances and consumer opinions posted online are now the most trusted forms of advertising globally. Nielsen has found that 90% of consumers trust peer recommendations. This is in comparison to 14% who trust advertisements in traditional media. And the ad dollars are following the trend - from offline to online. Now, look at what's happening online. Twitter and Facebook are growing in leaps and bounds. Visits to networking Web sites increased 53% during the first week of last September year-over-year. Last year the average teenager sent or received over 35,000 text messages-about one message every 15 minutes, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. (Nielsen)

You probably have someone in your family trying to coerce the rest of the family into getting on Facebook. Or you may have a friend or business acquaintance who has suggested that you need to be on Twitter. It's having an effect. Internet users last August spent 17% of their surfing time on social network sites, nearly three times the amount of time spent a year ago.

A certain group of you reading this is wondering who in the world has time for this stuff. And there's another group that's already hooked. But forget the family and friends for a moment. The big question is whether or not as a small business you should care.

Well, let me break the news to you. You SHOULD care. That's because there are many ways to make money using SMM. However, it's a matter of how long it will take and at what cost.

For now, consider this. In the world of marketing there's something called a product adoption curve. As you might expect, when a new service (or technology) becomes available, the rate at which it's adopted by people follows a bell-shaped curve. That means that early on, only the adventurous, early-adopters try it. But as time goes on, it becomes more mainstream and the majority then jumps on the bandwagon. Finally, you'll always have laggards who are late to adopt anything new. SMM is in the early adopter stage for businesses. The early adopters for this technology are primarily very large companies and select small entrepreneurs. The big, Fortune 500 firms, for example, almost all have staff with SMM in their job description and they have also adopted formal social media policies for their employees.

The good news is that you're not late! The vast majority of people are using SMM for personal reasons and few are leveraging it for business purposes. So I encourage you to get out there and start getting acquainted with social media. It's the way of the future of marketing!

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Why Hiring a Social Media Marketing Manager is a Surefire Way to Grow Your Business!

Have you heard all the buzz about social media marketing, but aren't really sure how it can be a part of your marketing plan or how to even get started? Are you considering using this form of new media to grow your business but are overwhelmed by the technical aspects and the massive time commitment to make this strategy work?

Trust me, you are not alone! I got caught up in the wave of online marketing about four years ago...right smack dab in the middle of building my first offline business. The idea of being able to automatically generate leads that didn't cost a dime was quite alluring.

The problem is that the people who tell you that it's so easy to generate leads and sales through social marketing don't factor in the time you have to spend learning how to use these systems and then constantly updating and maintaining multiple accounts to be successful with this strategy.

I learned that the hard way - by doing everything on my own for nearly three years. Updating profiles, adding friends, creating content, etc. etc. It got to the point where I was working 10+ hours a day just to keep up with everything...yes, I started to make sales, but shouldn't my time be more valuable than this?

Then I discovered a secret that I just have to share with you.

I was able to outsource this work to a social media marketing manager (SMMM) - which made my business grow like wildflower!

Here's how having a social media marketing manager can help you do the same:

Take care of all the technical aspects.

We all know that time is money. Hiring someone just to build all of your profiles and link them together is worth it's weight in gold. A good SMMM will take all of this off your plate and help you to develop a strategy for attracting your ideal client.

Profile management.

When you have multiple profiles (Linked In, You Tube, Facebook, Twitter) it can be a monumental task just to clean up all the junk requests and spam that comes into those accounts. Your social media marketing manager will do all of this tedious work on your behalf so you can focus your time on selling.

Audience building.

Finding the right people for you products and services is paramount in business. The best SMMM's will work with you to understand your ideal client and put together a strategy of building a following on the right social media sites to attract your best prospects.

Reputation management.

An old business saying is that a happy customer tells one person about their good experience, while an unhappy customer will tell eleven! If you are considering hiring a social media marketing manager, make certain that they will monitor what is being said about your products and services online so that if negative things are being spread, you can take immediate action!

Content creation.

The only way to succeed with social marketing is to constantly be creating content that is useful and engaging to your target audience. Your SMMM should be willing to create this content on your behalf and distribute it to your prospects. This also includes doing daily status updates on your various profiles.

Heather and her husband Jason own and operate the Best Social Media Manager a full service social media firm dedicated to exploding your online sales and leads through social media marketing.

They have an entire suite of options available and can tailor a program specific to your business needs. If you are serious about growing your business exponentially with social media, you must have the Best Social Media Manager!

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Avoiding Social Media Marketing Failures

If you want to succeed in your SEO or any other business online, it is important that you know the effective ways about social media optimization. Below are some of the tips to help you market you prevent the risks of facing some of the most common social media marketing failures.

• List down all the things that you want to accomplish using your marketing strategy. Some of the things that you may want to include in your objectives are networking, SEO, customer relations, branding, and so many others.

• Always reach out for your target audience. Think like the way your target market does. What are they looking for and most importantly what do they want the most.

• Always give content that has the quality that they want. And see to it that you do it consistently. Consistent quality content is the key to help your social media marketing successful especially when it comes to search engine optimization.

• Do not give more time to marketing. Instead spend more time focusing on your content. If you would give high quality content, you do not have to try hard marketing because it will already do the work for you. You would be surprised to know how your website would become popular simply because you have the right content.

• Never abuse the power of optimization. With the right social media marketing strategies, sooner or later you will become part of the highest rankings in search engines. However, if you over-optimize it would actually do more harm than good in your website. Search engines are now doing some actions on sites who over optimize to prevent it from manipulating the results given by the search engines.

• Instead of giving a link to your site's homepage, link to your About Me section so that they would know more about you first and your website.

• Include resources in your link. People would get tired if they would see that you are promoting your own website again and again. Look for websites that are relevant to yours and include it in your content. Do not even hesitate to include the links of your competitors as well. You might be surprised to know that this can actually be a great way to start networking and interlinking which is very essential in any new website.

• Create a good social network with the other website owners. Those who are in the same niche as yours may be your competitor but it actually does not matter when it comes to marketing social media. They can be your partners by exchanging links, joining online ventures together, and so many more possibilities. Other than exchanging links, you can also exchange comments at the same time.

Social Media Optimization is one of the internet marketing techniques by Yantram

Social Media Optimization is one of the internet marketing techniques that includes a various methods to promote your product, service, website, or business on social media. Yantram Internet Advertising utilize all categories of Social Media to promote your company’s product or services thorough our Social Media Agency. Contact our Social Media Marketing firm for Social Media Marketing Firm, Plans and Services.

Yantram is one of the leading Social Media Agencies India offers Social Media Marketing strategies and Social media optimization (SMO) are employed by empowered Search Engine Optimization and Online Social Media Services to promote the site through the use of networking in social networks, social bookmarking, photo sharing site and video sharing sites.

Yantram categorized Social Media Marketing Service following way.

A. Social Media Optimization Services and Social Media Advertising Services For general networking, consider profiles on Face book, MySpace and LinkedIn.

• Create Profile
• Develop Network, Make Friends, Join Communities
• Updates + Upload Pictures

B. For images, look at Picasa, flicker and Web Shots.

• Create Title and Description
• Upload Photos and Images.

C. For Video, consider Reviver and YouTube .

• Upload the Video
• Submit that video to different website for promotion.

D. For article marketing, submit to industry publications and general article syndication sites like Article City.

• Article Creation
• Article Submission
• Track record of Approval and Pending

E. For press releases marketing, targeting news search engines, syndicate via Business Wire or PRWeb.

• Create Press Release
• Submit Press Release
• Track Record of Approval & Pending
• Update Press Release


F. Audio files can be submitted via iTunes or a variety of other podcast directories.

G. For review, all content, tag and rate with sites like Stumble Upon, Digg and Delicious.

If you want to succeed in your SEO or any other business online, it is important that you know the effective ways about social media optimization. Below are some of the tips to help you market you prevent the risks of facing some of the most common social media marketing failures.

Always give content that has the quality that they want. And see to it that you do it consistently. Consistent quality content is the key to help your social media marketing successful especially when it comes to search engine optimization.