The internet can make or break a business but with the right market approach the smaller businesses now have the ability to take on the larger firms and win. Social networking websites like Facebook and Twitter now let businesses interact with their clients in a meaningful way provided the business owner is willing to put in the necessary effort.
In order to see results from social networking you need more than a Facebook fan page or a Twitter presence, while these help – you need a plan. Just about every other company out there is going to use social networking to market their services, but where these firms fall short is consistency. They will be aggressive for a few days but then slow down and give up. This is where you can overcome your competition by constantly coming to your Facebook and Twitter site on a regular basis. When you do this consumers will start to take you seriously.
What makes these social networking websites appealing is their ability to make things go viral, when someone buys a product of yours and mentions it on their Facebook and Twitter then all of their contacts are made aware, this spreading is powerful. In order to maximize the reach and exposure offered by social networking solutions it is necessary to build your marketing plan around it. Think of Facebook and Twitter as essential components of any marketing campaign and not simple add-ons.
A few things you should refrain from talking about when using social networking websites no matter how tempting it may be is matters of religion and politics. While it may feel right to state your opinion as a business owner your only opinion should be “the customer is always right”.
There is another benefit aside from the initial sales offered by social networking you can improve your search engine rankings as well. Search engines like Google take social signals into consideration when they are ranking a website and if your business is constantly being mentioned on Facebook and Twitter then Google is going to notice it.
Given the benefits that are associated with social networking websites you need to start your planning now if you want to start realizing the full potential of online marketing. Now you may be tempted to outsource this process to a SEO firm you must keep in mind that when you are using social networking websites whatever you put out there will stay there forever. Since there are many firms that could meet your needs be sure that you screen them carefully based on their track record of success. In order to gauge the suitability of these firms you need to find out what type of results were achieved in the past, without this due diligence it would be difficult to determine who the most sensible choice is.
By implementing a genuine strategy you will find you find that you can grow your fan base, increase your social media signals and be a part of the social media conversation in a consistent and productive manner.