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The Benefits of Using Social Media to Market Your Business

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Social Media Marketing

Your goal of starting your own business is finally a reality. You’re wondering how to get the word out but you don’t have a very sizeable budget for marketing. So, how do you reach a lot of people without spending a lot of cash? Two words: Social Media.

Social media has exploded in the last few years and, as business owners, we can use this to our best advantage. There are several types of social media and as I go over the different types, I will share some tips on how to best utilize them to market your business using social media.

Social Networking Sites

This includes sites such as Facebook, Google+, and LinkedIn. With over 600 million users on Facebook, that could mean a lot of exposure for your business in one place.

Social networking sites are getting more popular every day so businesses can no longer ignore the trend. Instead we should embrace these sites and view them as cost-effective marketing tools for both online and offline businesses.

There are already hundreds of well-known businesses using Facebook to promote new products, get feedback, and gain new customers. They offer discounts, coupons, and host contests and giveaways. Social networking sites can offer your business exposure, target audiences, new fans, and help to entice new customers. You can also upload pictures, videos, and post links that connect to your business.

Blogging

Blogging can be an effective way to let the public know about your business on a more casual, personal level. You can blog about what your business has to offer, new products, ideas, and upcoming promotions. You can learn what the public likes through comments and feedback.

When you write your company blog, link to other bloggers.

Bloggers love links. When you link to another blogger, they get a notification of that link. In terms of attention, this is even better than an email. It shows them that you took the time to read their blog post and build on it.

For your readers, it’s a great way to show them how you’re thinking about issues that others are wrestling with. Research who the thought leaders are in the industry and subscribe to and read their blogs via Google Reader. Incorporate their analysis, observations, and insight into your blog. Also engage those who comment on your blog. You can gain valuable information from them and it is a great way to ensure they will return to your blog.

You want to make sure to index your company blog. Search engines can deliver great traffic so be sure YOUR blog is part of their search index.

For instance, this is the Google page to submit your blog URL: http://www.google.com/addurl/?continue=/addurl.

Also include links in your blog to your company website as well.

Microblogging

Of course, this is Twitter. Twitter can be one of the most difficult social media tools to master. It can take a lot of time and effort, but if you take the time to do it correctly, it can be a powerful marketing tool. Don’t view Twitter as a sales tool but more of a contact tool. To get your name out there, get people to spread the word about your business, and build your reputation. Here are some good rules to follow when starting to twitter:

Before you start following people, get 3 or 4 tweets on your account so you don’t look like a spambot.

Follow prominent bloggers and follow who they are following. They will usually follow you back.

Fill out your bio- Use your real name, your location, your website, tell who your company is and what you do there, and upload a picture. If you don’t, a lot of people won’t follow you back. Also, this puts a more personal cap on you.

Tweet when you’re reading a good article. You have to limit it to just 140 characters so list the article name, shortened URL (for example, use bit.ly), and a short comment if you want. When people reply, give them the courtesy of a reply back. You can engage, use follow up questions, and challenge them, if you like.

Broadcast- Once you have established credibility and a set of followers, feel free to broadcast updates. These can be product releases, blog posts, upcoming events, etc.

You should try to make sure only around 60% of your tweets are conversational and the remainder should be about the message you’re sending about the products or services you’re marketing.

Non-@reply tweets- These are retweets that are passing on links to interesting information, personal observations as you do your work, personal life things (Funny stuff). People are attracted to twitters that pass along valuable information.

Video sharing

This includes YouTube, Vimeo, and GoogleVideo. Videos are a great way for people to view content. You can do product demos, for instance. One limitation for YouTube is that videos can be no longer than 10:59. This should be more than sufficient for basic product demos. And you can add links to your company’s website. GoogleVideo supports longer videos and they come up in Google search but unfortunately, Google is going to discontinue accepting new uploads to GoogleVideo in the near future.

Social Reading and Publishing

This includes Scribd and SlideShare, which are the leading social document sharing sites. You upload a document to these sites and people who are doing research can find and read them. Document types include:

  1. PowerPoints
  2. Word Documents
  3. PFDs
  4. Spreadsheets

This is a great place to share the content you are creating. One consideration for Scribd and SlideShare: A webinar presentation can actually multiply in value when it’s on these social document sharing sites. Don’t forget to tag your presentations. People will use them to find your documents.

You also have Social Bookmarking such as Digg, Reddit, and StumbleUpon. And Social Reviews like TripAdvisor and Yelp too.

Now that you know about the different types of social media, here are some benefits that it can offer your business.

  1. It can help build reputation and give your business great exposure.
  2. It provides cost-effective free advertising.
  3. It helps you to connect with key people in the industry.
  4. It helps you to discover what the public likes through feedback.
  5. Your business gains new traffic and increased sales.
  6. It can assist in getting public opinions when launching new products and services.

These are all great reasons to choose social media to help market your business.

So, you see, social media marketing is a great, inexpensive way that allows you to reach the maximum amount of people in a minimal amount of time. Attitude can be one of the most important considerations. If you view social media as a tedious part of your job, you won’t benefit from it as much because it will seem like a chore. But if you look at it as a great way to get your business out there, your business can flourish in a positive way.

In closing

If your company doesn’t have much money for a marketing budget, you should look into social media to market your business. It’s hard work, but it works. Now that you know the rewards you can reap by using social media to market your business, the next big question is:

Are you and your business ready to be social?

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About

Hi, I am Salah Messaoud. The founder and owner of AwesomeBloggers.com. My goal is build a community where awesome bloggers can all come together to share their ideas and thoughts with the whole world.

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{ 38 Responses }

  1. Steven Papas says:
    So true you have so many options online to make a business at home with little or no startup cost. I really like this article and the information it gives to people. People need to know what they can do.
  2. Dalelorenzo Johnson says:
    I have made some decent money using my three main blogs with Google AdSense. But here is a great method I have been using to make money online. I purchased a digital product from the ClickBank marketplace and reviewed the product. Once I did this, I followed what I read to see if I would get the same results the writer did. I did a short video teaching others what I learned and then made a recommendation to purchase the product at the end of the video. Of course, I only created a video for the products that actually worked for me. Since these products did work for me, by watching and following the video, you will also benefit by seeing a dramatic increase in conversions. Then I recommended this product through my own affiliate link. This way I could earn commissions on what others sold. The best way I found to do this was to purchase a meaningful and memorable domain name and redirect the domain to my affiliate link. Then overlay that link in the video. I usually post my videos on my blogs and send it to my mailing lists to make money. But if you don't have a list, then upload it to YouTube and everal other video sharing sites to make you commissions. It's a great technique that's worked for me.
    • Salah Messaoud says:
      Dalelorenzo, thanks for your comment. That is actually a very good idea, one that I might utilize myself. Thanks for the tip.
  3. Frank Bowes says:
    Hey Salah, Thanks for the clear and concise article. I will certainly incorporate these strategies into my marketing. Keep up the good work.
    • Salah Messaoud says:
      Frank, thanks for commenting. And you are welcome. I am glad you found this article useful. Thanks for your encouragement.
  4. Dev says:
    Fantastic post, Salah. Social Media sites & Bookmarking sites are great way to connect with like minded individuals & build relationship with them. Thanks for sharing the awesome insights, with us.
    • Salah Messaoud says:
      Dev, thanks for your encouraging comment. Yes, social media sites are a great way to build relationships with current and potential customers as well as introduce new products and services. I'm glad you enjoyed the article and I hope you found it useful.
  5. Mohamed Osam says:
    Thanks Salah for your post. You have mentioned LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook, and these are definitely the largest Social Media sites any bloggers should have in their site. I would add to them though StumbleUpon and Bloggers.com. I personally get a lot of traffic from StumbleUpon, very comparable to the traffic I get from Facebook and Twitter. The best thing about StumbleUpon is whatever new topic you share is categories and accordingly users/followers will only view topics they are interested in.
    • Salah Messaoud says:
      Mohamed, thanks for your comment. Yes, I didn't mention StumbleUpon as a social networking site but I did mention it as a social bookmarking site. I was trying to condense my article while also covering the most important aspects of using social media to market your business but it is worth pointing out that is is very similar to Facebook but not as widely used. But thank you for mentioning it.
  6. christajoe says:
    Social media marketing is good technique to market your business or product/ services/ brand via social networking sites. In todays world, most of the people are using social media for communication purpose, basically it is a media for social communication. So social media marketing is a effective technique but not a only option for marketing your business.
    • Salah Messaoud says:
      Christajoe, thanks for your comment. I agree, using social media marketing is a great tool to market your business and build your brand. Thanks for your input.
  7. Maja says:
    Hi Salah the main aim of the all above activities is to create a network to make the effective online communication.
    • Salah Messaoud says:
      Maja, thanks for your comment and I hope you enjoyed my article. I feel all of the aspects of social media work together in order to help market your business and get your brand out there in a positive way. And, yes, it also can create a great network that helps you and your business to effectively communicate with your followers and key people in the industry.
  8. Ana says:
    Yes, social network can be the future as you can find huge followers and subscribers from social networks. It is a big help to show to the world that you and your website exist. Just the right way of branding and promoting and you'll find success in social networking. If you want to build your brand, be consistent with your niche so your followers will not be confused with who you are or your company.
    • Salah Messaoud says:
      Ana, thanks for your comment. You are correct in that you should be consistent with your niche so you can be confident that your followers recognize your brand or your company. Social networking can be one of the best ways to help build your brand.
  9. Jed P. says:
    Hello Salah ..This is the second most useful article of yours :) Cheers
    • Salah Messaoud says:
      Jed, Thanks for the comment. I'm glad you found my article useful. I tried to cover most of the important aspects of social media marketing so my readers could see all of the key advantages that using social media to help market your business and how effective it can be. Cheers to you as well.
  10. Barry Ranns says:
    Hi Salah, When I first started in Internet Marketing i naively thought it was just about making money, but there is so much more to it than just that. It is about building relationships too, finding people you can network with, develop ideas and strategies with, and ultimately, even become proper friends, not just Facebook friends. Once you have this in place, and I am still starting, that is when you can begin to make some money, but making money is not the sole aim, it is the result of nurturing and helping others, giving without wanting anything in return. People on the whole, like other people, and like helping other people, and this should be the basic foundation for any financial plans, Barry
    • Salah Messaoud says:
      Barry, thanks for your comment. I feel a lot of people initially get started in Internet Marketing hoping to make substantial cash but hopefully, as they delve deeper into it, they realize it's not just about making money. It's also about developing solid relationships with people. Sometimes people that can benefit you in your business, whether it be customers or contacts in the industry. Having the desire to help people can allow you to see things from their perspective and that can help you to gain a good, solid reputation in the business world as well as in social circles. Thanks for your insight.
  11. Adrienne says:
    Ah, who doesn't love social media Salah! You have definitely spelled out how people can get their content out on these social media sites and the right way to go about spreading your content. Social media should be incorporated into everyone's daily routines and one no one should ignore just how powerful this truly is. Google is now ranking social media posts in their search engine so see what your Tweets or Facebook shares can do to your content! Now I will share this post on my social media sites so they can learn how they can use social media to their benefit as well. Great job Salah.
    • Salah Messaoud says:
      Adrienne, thanks for your comment and for sharing my post. I think it could be very insightful for someone wanting to learn how social media marketing can benefit their business. I also learned some things as I did my research so it benefited me as well. I agree, indeed social media is a very powerful tool for marketing and we should use it to our advantage. Thanks again for the share!
  12. Faissal Alhaithami says:
    Nice post Salah, Social media can be a very effective way to market our businesses and products if we know how to do it correctly. that's why every business should be blogging and networking for more customer engagements :D Thanks for post, Salah
    • Salah Messaoud says:
      Fassail, thanks for your comment as well. A lot of people don't realize just how effective social media can be to get the word out there about your business. Social media has virtually exploded over the last couple of years. It definitely is to our advantage to take the time to master the art of twitter because it spreads news fast to an enormous amount of people. I hope you enjoyed my article.
  13. Francoise says:
    Thanks for the points! Whether in blogging or other business related activities, using social media is the best remedy to gain market. Social media like Facebook is really a big help.
    • Salah Messaoud says:
      Francoise, thanks for the comment! You are so welcome, as well. Yes, social media can be beneficial in a lot of different ways, not just to sell products or services. It can help you to gain exposure and build reputation, even if it is just for a blog or website. Social media can put you in touch with so many more people at one time than you could ever reach in any other venue.
    • Salah Messaoud says:
      Laura, thanks for your comment. That is true, social media shouldn't be just an option, it should be a necessary tool. It can be such an effective way to reach the maximum amount of people possible. You don't just see immediate results, you also realize long term effects from it. Articles such as this can open people's eyes to the benefits of social media marketing. The spammers do have a tendency to give social media a bad name but there are people utilizing social media with good reputations. We have to try to focus on that instead because eventually, the spammers will be weeded out.
  14. Laura Vennon says:
    Social media is not an option anymore, it's a must but a lot of people still do not know how to use social tools. The reason why it's called social is because it involves people, but some users are mostly concerned about spamming their followers rather than actually sharing something meaningful.
    • Salah Messaoud says:
      Laura, thanks for your comment. That is true, social media shouldn’t be just an option, it should be a necessary tool. It can be such an effective way to reach the maximum amount of people possible. You don’t just see immediate results, you also realize long term effects from it. Articles such as this can open people’s eyes to the benefits of social media marketing. The spammers do have a tendency to give social media a bad name but there are people utilizing social media with good reputations. We have to try to focus on that instead because eventually, the spammers will be weeded out.
  15. Eren Mckay says:
    The reason I love social media so much is because I really love people. I believe that when we go in with the mindset of being truly helpful to others and really caring.. it all comes back around full circle and benefits our business. Great points here. All the best, Eren
    • Salah Messaoud says:
      Eren, thanks for the comment. Yes, when we go into a business with the mindset of really wanting to help others, it is reflected in the way we do business and treat our customers. And that really does come back around full circle and benefit us. Partly, because our customers learn to respect us and know they can count on us. This, in turn, helps to build our reputation in the industry. All the best to you also.
  16. DiTesco says:
    It is so amazing how much "two words" can achieve. Social media has been a gift from "heaven" for not only those who are on a shoestring budget but for virtually anyone who wants to get noticed. With so much tools at our disposal, it is still hard to believe that there are many who are not taking advantage of it..
    • Salah Messaoud says:
      DiTesco, thanks for the comment. It IS hard to believe there are businesses not taking advantage of all the great opportunites that social media has to offer. Some may not realize the endless opportunities it can offer their business. That's why articles such as this are so important, to bring to light the many different types of social media there are and how their business can benefit from it.Who knew just two small words could be so powerful?
  17. Sandy says:
    Hi Salah, for few weeks, i visit this site, and now i came back and read this post. First, i agree with you. Social network and platforms are the future. The people love them and google too. For ranking, social bookmarks and FB likes are important. In Point, 1 you write about FB and all the other social networks. i agree. You can use these platforms for your business. You can make a business site on FB an promote your "really" site. The same you can make with blogs. A good network from blogs can link on your site and give power and traffic. All this methods together are the best way to promote your business. In last weeks, i read many sites and blog about SEO and social Network, Blogging and all the others. i learn so much, and i think, i will test many methods for my own Business. I hope, I can start next year. Wish you much success with your projects and i find your site and this post very interesting. Greetings from Germany
    • Salah Messaoud says:
      Sandy, thanks for the comment. I'm glad you read my post and I hope you enjoyed the article. Yes, I also believe social media represents a crucial component in the future of marketing. With so many people utilizing social networking sites for many different things, your business can get enormous exposure in that one venue alone. Blogs are also a great place to market your business and they allow you to keep in touch with your followers in a more personal, casual way. Good luck in starting your business and I wish you much success as well.
  18. David says:
    Social media is no longer optional. If we don't catch the train, we're going to be stepped on. While i'm seeing a great increase of interest in using social media to promote businesses, i still find people who are resistant to the whole idea (i really don't know why?). Thanks for the great insights Salah H David
    • Salah Messaoud says:
      David, thanks for the comment. I agree, using social media shouldn't just be optional, it should strongly recommended to help market your business. Not only is it cost effective, your business reaches a much larger audience than traditional marketing and the opportunities are endless. Businesses need to embrace social media instead of being resistant to it. We are definitely in agreement on that.
  19. Raj says:
    Perhaps one of the biggest benefits of social marketing is the fact that new visitors and prospective new clients are fetched over a long term as well, in addition to the ones obtained on the short term. Blogs and Youtube have worked very well for me.
    • Salah Messaoud says:
      Raj, thanks for your comment. It's great that blogs and YouTube have worked well for you. Are you using social media networking as well? Your business can get a lot of exposure and it's a great platform to introduce new products, get feedback through surveys, and gain new followers. If you're not using that aspect of social media, you sould give it a try.