Running a small business successfully equates to managing multiple issues successfully. Even though the prime factor no doubt revolves round strong business acumen on part of the business owner, marketing abilities prove indispensible towards keeping it afloat and reaching the summit. While traditional marketing methods involving press releases, PR and a sizeable budget for posting ads are ok with big companies or corporate bodies, for a small business it could be killing.

 

Where there’s a will, there is a way

Nevertheless, ‘where there’s a will, there is a way’. Small business owners all over the world have found a new method of marketing their products by way of leveraging social media platforms that is not only more effective than traditional marketing strategies but is cost effective too. Colloquially called Social Media Marketing or SMM, this novel plan that involves low budget marketing has now become most popular with most small, medium and even large business establishments.

What is social media marketing?

Social media marketing, to be precise, is a type or form of internet marketing that puts into practice various social media networks towards achieving effective marketing communication as well as branding goals. Instead of falling in line with conventional marketing methods, social media marketing covers activities that entail social sharing of content, videos, graphic and images for promotional purposes.

Social Media Marketing – How to start?

In order to take advantage of social media marketing, you surely need to create appropriate social media marketing campaign, but prior to that you need to concentrate on your business goal. Starting a SMM campaign sans a social strategy can be as devastating as flying an aircraft without a compass – ending up in a crash or going haywire. In other words, you need to use your gray cells to figure out your goals: what are you going to gain through SMM? Who will be your target audience? Where do you expect to locate them and how they are going to interact with social media? Above all, you need to think out what message you intend to send out to your chosen audience through SMM campaign? Unless these issues are not clarified at the outset, it may not be worthwhile to venture into SMM.

Some of the objectives you are likely to think about

Social media marketing can help you achieving some of the objectives that include:

• Conversions
• Traffic (Website Traffic)
• Brand awareness
• Development of brand identity and constructive brand association
• Interaction with the right type of audience

It goes without saying that unless and until you can establish your objectives, you can never become successful with your aimless social media marketing efforts.

Social Media Marketing Tips

These tips will help you progress through the right course while conducting SMM campaigns

• Keyword Research is not obsolete, regardless of what SEO gurus may predict. It is still very much relevant with your target audience.
• Content is the King even when creating social media campaigns. Useful, informative and unique content will attract members of your target audience like nothing else. Instead of providing text-only content, make it more engaging by including social media images, infographics and videos that relate to your product or services. However, relevancy is the name of the game.
• Planning is most essential when initiating an SMM campaign. A well planned SMM campaign is hundred times more effective than haphazardly planned operation.
• Brand image consistency is equally important when executing an SMM campaign. Utilizing social media for marketing involves projecting your brand image across a multitude of social media platforms. Even though each of these platforms has its unique way of expression, you must make sure that your brand’s core identity remains consistent all through.
• Blogging is considered to be an invaluable marketing tool that voluntarily allows you to share an unbelievable array of information, messages and text with readers and so should be encouraged as much as possible.

 

Social Media Platforms that you may use

This blog post has so far touched the tips of social media platforms; while more information is provided hereunder.

• Facebook – with more than 1.23 billion active users, Facebook still maintains its casual, friendly environment requiring dynamic social media marketing to begin with creating a Facebook Business Fan Page. However, social media marketing for business pages are often linked to conversation excerpts with audiences through posting of business-related write ups, videos, etc.
• Google+ — promotes the same casual environment, while allowing you to divide followers into separate groups, thus enabling you to share information with individual group, cutting off others.
• Pinterest – Its image-centered platform proves great for retail, while anyone can gain from using Pinterest for social media purposes.
• Twitter – This is a great social media marketing tool that lets you post your updates across the web. If you follow tweeters in your chosen field, you are sure to become benefited with a steady team of followers in return.
• LinkedIn may be reckoned as one of the more proficient social media marketing sites. You can persuade clients to give your business a recommendation on your LinkedIn profile, while such commendation will make your business more credible before new customers.
• YouTube undoubtedly proves to be the Numero Uno place for developing video content which oftentimes becomes an incredibly powerful social media marketing tool. Most noteworthy are the instructive “how-to” videos.

Conclusion

You must have understood by now as to why you need to go social with your small business marketing and benefit from it in more than one way.