SOCIAL MARKETING

Why engage followers and fans?Social media is all about a conversation. Whether it is on Facebook, Twitter, blogs or any of the countless other social outlets, marketing through social media allows you to interact with, and engage, current and future customers.

One of the greatest benefits of social media is that it provides a direct line of communication between you and your target audience.

Even without overtly selling to your clients through social media, your presence and interaction, coupled with your other online marketing, helps to build a relationship with your customers and build your brand online.

Having a voice that reflects the personality of your business and industry is key, but overall, people want to follow accounts that are fun. Use social media to show a different side of your business than what a customer sees on your website. For example, upload some pictures onto Facebook of your workspace, your employees or photos from events you organize. Or maybe start a video blog with some of your employees to give your customers a backstage pass into your business.

Get creative, show some personality and have fun with it!

Take look at how Old Spice turned their traditional marketing into a conversation (and took the cyber world by storm) by utilizing social media in addition to traditional marketing.

Social media helps to humanize your company and build trust with your customers. Here are a few guidelines to get you started or help you along the way.

Promote…sparinglyWhen it comes to promotion on social media, balance is key.

While you should definitely use your accounts to promote your business and services, make sure that not all of your content reads like ad copy.  No one will want to hear what you have to say if you’re all take and no give.

Your customers see social media as a cyber community of interaction and information sharing.  Be sure to vary your posts between promotion, commentary, conversation and information sharing. Also, it’s important not to post too many times per day.  The quickest way to lose

followers, fans or readers is by flooding their news feeds. Try to post consistently, at least once per day. Be careful to never post more than 5 times per day on Facebook or ten times per day on Twitter.

Share

Lots of fantastic information is posted

on Twitter and Facebook daily.  Share it!

As long as you make sure to give credit to the original source, sharing information is a great way to develop a community and to interact with others in your industry.

Social Media Cross Promotion

and Growth

Hang in there! Social media can be frustrating and overwhelming at first. You’re not going to beat out Oprah in Twitter follower numbers your first week (or probably ever).

Whether you’re first starting out on social media or are trying to maintain your account and grow your following, it takes some work to really benefit from everything that social has to offer.

Just like radio, print and TV ads are built to work together as part of a traditional marketing plan within their individual

mediums, social media accounts and campaigns should promote a similar messages in varying ways. The Old Spice campaign is a perfect example of different social outlets for different specific purposes.

Many accounts let you post one place and have that post be automatically sent to all your other accounts at the same time. Although that may be easier, it’s defeating the purpose of social. What you post on Twitter should be different than what you post on Facebook which should be different than what’s on your website. Automatic postings can annoy your audience and they don’t help to humanize your online voice.

About 3Sixty Interactive3Sixty Interactive is a professional agency with

over ten years of experience in the digital world.

They offer a variety of digital marketing solutions

that include search engine optimization, digital

advertising, email marketing, social media,

customized strategy reports, analytics and

maintenance of your marketing plan.

Learn more about 3Sixty Interactive at www.

3sixtyinteractive.com or by calling us at

1-877-43Sixty.