Your Step by Step Guide to Social Media Marketing
If you’re new to the social media marketing, you probably have a lot of questions. If you’ve been doing your research, it’s possible-even likely-that you feel more overwhelmed than informed by all the information you’ve discovered. Everyone’s got their own take on the best way to achieve positive results for their business with social media marketing. Everyone’s got a unique twist on the basic strategy. Everyone’s got their own opinion regarding the best way to accomplish a successful marketing campaign. So who do you listen to? Where do you start? The good news is there’s no need to be overwhelmed. The basics of social media marketing are actually quite simple. So here’s a step by step guide to help you get started, and before you know it you’ll be offering your own opinions and advice to up and coming marketers!
Step 1: Define Your Niche
Before you even start setting up accounts (we’ll cover the specifics of that step in a moment) you’ll want to take some time to really define your niche. What is your business? What is the philosophy that drives you toward success? What makes you special? Why should people choose your business over others similar to it? Know your market niche and define your place within it. This will help you in the long run to develop specifically targeted marketing initiatives to rapidly expand your business.
Step 2: Lay the Groundwork
Now it’s time to set the stage for the launch of your social media marketing strategy. Establish a Facebook page for your business, but don’t stop there. You’ll also want a Twitter account, a StumbleUpon account and a Digg account…and those are just for starters. Another avenue you should consider pursuing is getting your business listed with Google Places, followed by any relevant local and online directories you can find. Pretty simple so far, right? Well, it is, but we’re not quite finished.
Step 3: Do Your Homework
As with any new skill, there’s a bit of a learning curve involved when you’re mastering all the ins and outs of social media marketing. You will find it well worth your while to spend a little time discovering the “tricks of the trade,” so to speak. You’ll need to learn how to:
- Write informative and engaging articles
- Create useful and entertaining videos
- Take and place relevant photos
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO); proper use of SEO is basically the difference between websites that get found and those that stagnate somewhere back on page 15 or 20 in the search results.
These are all tools you will use to make your website interesting and relevant. From here you will connect with your contact from all those social networking sites, offering automatic updates from your website to your media page. These are not necessarily sales pitches; these are just alluring tidbits of expert advice or entertainment to draw curious, potential customers to your business.
Social media marketing is simple, fun and effective! Follow these quick and easy steps, and you’ll have it mastered in no time!
What’s your favorite social media and why?