This is a guest post by Amanda. If you want to guest post on this blog, check out the guidelines here.
The newest addition to any Internet marketer’s arsenal is social media marketing. Sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn connect people to people and people to brands continuously while allowing constant interaction. Many are weary of Social Media; if worked with unfocused campaigns, it can eat up your time and take you away from other necessary projects. The key to Social Media is to connect your company to consumers, and this can be done in just 10 minutes a day.
1. Take It One Step at a Time
If you only have 10 minutes to spend on your Social Media campaigns you should choose which platform to start with. To have an exceptional social media presence you will eventually need a solid presence on both Twitter and Facebook, but that does not mean that you need to get bogged down with both at once. You should pick one platform and run with it; master either Facebook or Twitter before moving on to the other. If you try to divide your 10 minutes between the two, you will fail at both.
If you start with Facebook, you’ll need to have proper branding and bio. The most important part of your Facebook page is the wall where you can interact with your fans. If you already have both your Facebook and Twitter pages started, rather than dividing your time between the two each day you should spend one day on Facebook and the next on Twitter. Make sure to spend the full 10 minutes each day on one platform in order to get your desired results.
2. Respond to Your Fans
Most people following your Facebook or Twitter pages are not listening to you. You should respond to your fans rather than talking at them or advertising to them. Your social media involvement is an opportunity for you to create an experience for your customer base and add to your company’s narrative.
Responding to your customer base means spending most of your time responding to @’s, messages, & wall posts. You can also utilize your social media position to respond to any negative PR or responses from your customers. To respond effectively, you must listen to your customers and embrace detractors; you do not want your naysayers to have any ammunition.
You should also spend your social media time getting to know your fans and followers. This attention can turn these fans and followers into customers and customers into prospects. You have the power to turn anyone into a brand evangelist if you treat them well by responding and listening to them.
3. Reach Out To People
Find people through searches on your social media network; look for those who have a question about your industry and niche market, or people who just need a little bit of help. Give them the information they’re looking for without asking them to follow you or linking them to a product.
This may lead to an invitation to join you on Facebook, Twitter, or your blog but that should never be your goal. Your goal is get on people’s radar and get them to talk about you. By doing this you will show them who you are and how to find you without being pushy.
4. Choose Your Actions
With limited time, you’ll want to focus on one or two actions per day. You do not need to spend your entire day putting out fires or replying to everything that comes up. Sometimes it’s better to just spend time on your social media sites without sending marketing messages; they usually go unnoticed anyway. Tell the story through your actions and send your message through your interactions.
5. Organize Your Efforts
Although you may think that it is a waste of time to reflect on your social media marketing, you might find some very useful information that can help you improve your marketing efforts. Look back to what efforts were the most successful and try to continue following those. It seems like such an easy task, but you might be amazed by how much time you can spend studying this. However, it can pay off if you can find better, more efficient ways to handle your social medial marketing.
Follow these internet marketing tips and you will rock the social media universe.
Author Bio:
Amanda is a writer and blogger living in San Diego, CA (USA). Visit her internet marketing website for more information.
