nickdova: 10 Reasons to Use Social Media

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10 Reasons Why You Should Use Social Media?

Social Media Marketing is now a fundamental element of the marketing mix for small businesses and large businesses alike. It is an area that has seen incredible growth in recent years and it is crucial that you consider developing a social media marketing strategy for your business.

Social media marketing for small businesses

What is your cause? Build your social media profile with a social media marketing strategy for the long term, not a short term win!

But please don?t misinterpret the need for using social media. I am a huge advocate of it but at the same time, it is not the be all and end all in the widest possible sense?

Suddenly opening a Twitter account will probably not change your business overnight!

Social media marketing must be part of an overall marketing strategy to connect with your clients and prospects both on and offline.

Today, I would like to focus on how social media can be a valuable way of building relationships, credibility and proving your expertise in your particular area of business.

But like the name suggests, social relationships usually take a while to develop and to turn an introductory or chance meeting into a strong relationship needs effort and time. ?What is important is to be consistent, reach out to others and connect with like minded people and businesses and social media marketing if implemented effectively can help you do this quickly and with relative ease!

Here are 10 quick reasons why your business should be using social media marketing to connect with clients and prospects and how you can use social media to help grow your business:-

1. Getting found: Being active with social media and blogging on a constant and consistent basis creates opportunity to make your business visible to your target audience. Just think about being social in a general sense. It involves engaging in conversations, giving daily comments, opinions, tips and ideas.

2. Become a reliable source: When you increase your visibility and connections, you have the chance to share relevant, interesting and useful content. Building credibility and reputation in your social media is one of the most powerful strategies. Becoming the ?go to? person shows your expertise and makes you a standout person in your field. You can create an image wherein people trust in your expertise thereby making a positive impression. As a result, your company will be the one that others search out and look for.

3. Build a community: We all have different forms of community in which we are involved. Whether it is in the area we live, work or socialise. The same can happen online in your social media which can often develop offline too. To focus on ?building your own community is a sure way to gain trust. Make connections, sharing useful and interesting information and most importantly, comment and add value on other peoples information too. A conversation is a two way street and no-one likes someone who talks about themselves all day long!

4. Focus on the benefits of what you do: There is one fundamental rule about social media?..Don?t just sell. ?If you think of a real life scenario and imagine a continual one way pitch to a group of people who have no real interest in what you are trying to sell! It just doesn?t work does it?! ?Social media provides a platform to add value, put yourself in your customer and prospects shoes and think how you can help them. If you aren?t sure, the obvious thing to do is to ask questions to find out what people are looking for!

5. Network with people who have influence: The incredible thing about social media is it allows you to connect directly with all kinds of people. From celebrities, politicians, actors, business people, public speakers, marketers and just as importantly, al your potential customers! Combine these different sections of society and you will certainly create a herd of fans! By connecting with well known or respected people will add credibility to you and will help encourage people to keep following you.

6. Tell stories: It?s human nature for stories to resonate and become memorable. We all love stories and they are the foundation of all of our memories. Build your profile and help people connect with you in the sense of relating to your personal and business story. Telling of your highs and lows, your struggle and determination are powerful strategies as long as you don?t continually go on about yourself but use this strategy as a way of showing you can empathise with others who are currently experiencing what you have. Really emphasising on how painful your experience was and then explaining how you turned your struggle into success is a great marketing strategy on or offline. But social media gives you the chance to win over more people, in a quicker time. Helping people feel a sense of belonging?to both you and your company creates a personal touch to customers by simply demonstrating your company?s story to the users.

7. Go out of your way to serve: The people you really want to connect with will appreciate you if you are going out of your way to help others and add value. Sharing great information and knowledge can sometimes be taken for granted or dismissed and criticised by some. Don?t take it personally. Those people would never have become your customers anyway. Focus on the people who love what you do and appreciate the value you add to them and their business.

8. You?ve got to get writing: Sorry, the reality is, if you want to get really good at social media, you have to get good at writing great content! Of course there is video and audio but you still need the written word! So the shortest piece of advice here is if you can?t do it? outsource it!? Like all things, practice is perfect so you need to commit to a work schedule that creates a lot of good content. Don?t churn out anything just for the sake of it as that can be detrimental. But create a plan and get to work! If you really think this is outside of your skillset or time availability, find someone who can do this for you! Here at PrintRepublic, we offer social media management as a service for people like you who are convinced social media is right for you but don?t have the time, skills or inclination to do it yourself!

9. Listen Up and Read Up: Social media marketing demands a lot of both of these skills. Reading feedback, other blogposts, social media posts and comments on blogs and forums can you give a stack of knowledge and ideas to use to help you generate content! You can determine a what your target market are talking about and supply answers to their questions by reading and listening to what they say. This is far more powerful than just guessing and assuming what people want to know and can save you a bundle of time and effort in getting this wrong!

10. React like lightening: Social media is in the now! it?s instant and depending on the platform, it has also gone just as quickly! This is relevant to Twitter but of course, platforms like a blog or youtube, your content is there forever for people to see. You can see what people are talking about and react in an instant. You can also take some notes to go onto a content plan when you see trends and ongoing issues people have that you can offer a solution too.

I hope some of these ideas help you get focussed on a social media marketing strategy.

If you need help or you want to outsource your social media marketing, then read more on the following page: -?https://www.printrepublic.co.uk/social-media-marketing

Also check out my Social Media marketing site for more tips and ideas!

http://www.thesocialmediarepublic.co.uk/home/

A free small business marketing guide