Many small business owners are sceptical about using social media as part of a marketing strategy for their business. This is predominantly due to fear of the unknown and really understanding the power of social media and its potential to connect with clientele.
When a person is looking to engage the services of an organisation, it generally takes 4-5 points of contact with the business before they choose to move forward. These points may include visiting your website, making a telephone enquiry, perusing a brochure or perhaps visiting your store. If someone has already made three of the previously mentioned points of contact, what other points do you have in place to get them over the line? Social media may be the answer.
Think about it this way: social media is simply another tool that adds to your overall marketing strategy alongside your website, your newsletters and your brochures, etc. However, the difference between social media and the rest is that it allows you to engage one-on-one with both your current and potential clients. It gives you the chance to showcase your expertise through sharing information and conversations in a more relaxed, personal environment.
Social media is the biggest shift in marketing seen to date. Your competitors are chatting up your customers right now_. Where are you?
Social media is kind of like a marketing tornado for your business, but in a good way!
Your social media pages gain followers who get picked up through strong fan-gating. Fan-gating uses applications to capture visitors attention and encourages them to Like your page and engage with your brand. These followers are then directed to your other marketing efforts, which may be signing up to newsletters, or through to your website or place of business. The stronger the effort to keep them within your marketing tornado, the more touch-points you have and the better it is for your business!
The thing to remember here is that unlike tornados, followers are not drawn in against their will, they voluntarily connect with you. In fact, they choose to engage with your business, making them a warm lead from the outset.
A key aspect to incorporating social media into your marketing strategy is to ensure that your online offering matches your offline offering. There is no use in positioning yourself as an expert in computers through social media, then customers are met with a salesperson in store with little expertise or knowledge.
Incorporating consistency and authenticity into your marketing strategy is key!
You might be interested in this upcoming event...
Online Webinars - Starting 28 May 2013
NEW webinar series: designed to dispel the myths about social media and arm small business owners with skills and know-how to make social media a powerful force for business development and bottom line results.
Experts will present practical ways to use social media to:
Learn more about the Social Media for Small Business webinar series.
Belinda Bow is a Certified Practising Marketer, Associate Fellow with the Australian Marketing Institute and the Founder of Green Chilli Marketing. Making businesses thrive through hot marketing has been Belinda's thing for over 12 years.
Belinda's experience across a range of industries...
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