No business can survive and thrive without marketing. The problem of small businesses is that marketing can get expensive, so they barely can afford to make a proper marketing plan and stick to it. This is where social media marketing comes into play. Even if your business is not online yet, you can still take advantage of social media to promote your brick and mortar shop. It works for all kinds of businesses.
Social media is the latest craze of the new millennium. Almost all of us have at least one social media account, if not several. People use social media to share interesting things with their friends and acquaintances. They ask their friends for recommendations via social media. Twitter is an awesome platform for rapidly spreading the news about such and such event that is turning the world upside-down just as we type. Facebook is great for sharing amazing websites and videos with your circle of friends. LinkedIn is the perfect place to build yourself a professional profile where former colleagues and employers can endorse your skills.
You do want to be part of all this, so your business has to be wherever your customers are. Moreover, in social media, your customers will form communities, fact that makes them even more powerful when it comes to endorsing your services or products to their circles.
The beauty of social media is that people use it to communicate and share. Whenever they spend time on a social network, they are already in the sharing mood. This is the right mood for them to receive your message, as they are ready to pass it on to their friends. Some of them might even be looking for cool things to spread the news about and keep their followers and fans entertained.
A big advantage of social media marketing is that it is fairly inexpensive. You can advertise on Facebook, for instance, for very little money and enjoy the advantage of reaching precisely your core target. The core target of your service or product is formed by those 20% of your customers who make you 80% of your profits. Paretto's law applies in this case, as well as in other branches of marketing.
When you plan your social media marketing strategy and tactics, you need to keep in mind that classic advertising may not work in this interactive environment. You do need to think out of the box and come out with pieces of content or video clips that have the potential of becoming viral.
One of the ways to include social media into your marketing mix is to set up a blog for your business. Blogging is excellent because it offers your customers a way to interact with you directly by leaving comments on your articles. You can use the blog to your advantage by organizing polls on various issues related to your products. In this way, you'll be able to fine-tune your marketing message and actions in order to get in the top of mind of everybody who could use the things you sell.
Briefly, social media should be part of any smart marketing plan, no matter what you business is about.
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