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Using Social Media Marketing to Drive
Traffic to Your Website
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What is Social Media Marketing?
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In a nutshell, social media marketing is the
process of participating in social media networks in order to further build a brand and enhance marketing
communication. This type of Internet marketing makes use of a variety of social media communication techniques,
including email and instant messaging, blogging, online chats and forums, podcasting and much
more. Many of these techniques have been around for a while, but only in recent years have businesses
begun to fully exploit the rich opportunities open to them within social media. Before you take the
plunge into the sea of social media marketing, learn how to use the tools to your advantage.
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While many of the best known social networking
websites -- sites such as MySpace, Facebook and Twitter - were originally conceived as
platforms through which individuals could share with each other, these platforms are quickly becoming a valuable
tool for businesses in their efforts to strengthen their brand and reach out to potential customers.
Social media marketing (SMM) provides a number of other benefits, providing businesses with the
opportunity to:
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Help people through information, resources and
useful tools
Build brand awareness
Earn trust in the online community
Build a following
Turn followers into website visitors, and
website visitors into customers
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The beauty of SMM is that it is an inexpensive
way to reach out, and anyone can do it at any time.
However, to get the most from this business
tool, you'll want to invest some time in forming a plan of action and learning how to get started on the
right foot, maintain visibility with your audience and measure your success.
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Your Social Media Marketing Plan
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There's a reason social networking/social media
is rapidly gaining in popularity in recent years: It's fun! Reaching out and making meaningful connections
with people who share your interests and passions is stimulating. Not only that but, far from being a
mindless diversion, it's an extremely productive, fruitful activity -- if you participate in a structured
way. By approaching social media in a disciplined way, you can greatly influence your visibility and your
reputation and enjoy the interactions along the way.
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- Set objectives. What action do you want your
network or your blog readers to take? What do you want them to get out of their
social networking
experience with you?
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- Determine your audience. Most businesses invest
a great deal of time, money and energy during their startup to determine who
their prospects are.
Put this to good use in focusing your social media energies on the right target audience.
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- Know what image you wish to project. Are you a
pal, and authority or the go-to guy? Determine what real-life profile fits you and
convey that image
-- that brand -- in every social media/networking activity.
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- Choose your format(s). Post blogs through blog
platforms such as WordPress, Blogger and others.
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- Decide how you'll execute your plan. Will you do
it yourself or get help? While input and insight from you is essential to projecting
the brand and the
image you want your audience to see, a company with expertise in online marketing can assist with the
technical aspects of setting up profiles,
posting, linking and using search engine optimization and to make
your communications
more visible to search engines.
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It is important to go into SMM with the right
attitude, right off the bat. Yes, SMM can be a wonderful way to touch people, make friends and contacts,
and influence them to follow you to your website, but it is a subtle art. People can spot insincerity
and ulterior motives in milliseconds, even online, so approaching SMM unselfishly is a must.
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"Give and you shall receive."
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It's a mantra you'll likely hear over and over
in the social media world, and it may well be the most important (and challenging) concept to master.
It can't be stressed enough: Every
blog, every article post, every interaction with your social
networking contacts should be focused on how it benefits your audience -- not your business.
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With the expectations about your motivations
properly set, it's time for you to begin introducing yourself to the Web community. You can choose
one SMM method only if you wish, but a more effective approach is to use a variety of tools to expand
your presence. This resource focuses on three:
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1. Social Networking
2. Blogging
3. Content Sharing
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1.) Social Networking
You may already be using social networking sites
to keep up with friends and family. Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Bebo, Friendster are among the most popular right now; they're
user-friendly, ubiquitous and are equipped with a variety of
applications and gadgets that make using the sites enjoyable. There are also a number of SMM
websites that are especially great for business purposes (Reddit, Digg, Del.icio.us and
StumbleUpon to name a few). Contacts you make through social networking will also often recommend a few of
their favorite SMM websites.
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Invest some time up front in the construction of
your profile, including biographical information, a photo, objectives, interests, expertise and
other professional and personal associations. Use these topics in the social networking site's search
tool to locate people and organizations who've share interests and associations. Rather than lie back
and wait for the conversations to start, introduce yourself. Just as you would extend a warm
handshake at a party or business convention, offer your hand to the online community.
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Whether you're using a personal account or a
business account or both, be open and transparent, and encourage your new-found friends in the online
community to consider you a good neighbor and a resource.
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2.) Blogging
Blogs are a staple for businesses looking to
build a presence. Use blog posts on WordPress and
other sites as a resource for others by regularly
offering up fresh, original information that is of interest and is useful to others. Your contributions to your
blog will be far more meaningful and credible if they focus on giving information and resources to others,
rather than hawk your own products or taut your business' attributes.
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Indirectly, though, these posts allow you to
establish your authority in your industry and also provide readers with a reason and means visit your site.
In addition to providing links to valuable resources, give readers a convenient way to reach you for
additional support and guidance.
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3.) Content Sharing
This differs slightly from blogging, in that it
encompasses not just sharing ideas and information through posts, but also sharing content via other
methods and content sharing sites:
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- articles
- news releases (PRWeb, eReleases, PRNewswire)
- photos (Flickr)
- videos (YouTube, Yahoo! Video, Google Video)
- whitepapers (Del.icio.us)
- presentations
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With each of these methods, be smart about
linking. Use your blog, social networking page or content sharing platform to link back to your website,
but also link out to these SMM resources from your business website.
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Maintain Your Social Media Presence
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Depending on the amount of time you can set
aside for SMM, it can take a while to build up a following and see real-world results (read
"conversions"), but with regular effort and patience, all that
"paying forward" can pay back in a big way.
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If possible, set aside time daily, even if it's
a few minutes, to maintain your social media presence. You may wish to enlist the aid of a friend, coworker
or an online marketing partner to manage your SMM campaign for you on a regular basis, or at least
keep up with it when you're out of town or bogged down. Some services can provide everything from
simple blog posting services to copywriting services so you can get professionally written content as
well.
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If it helps, have a checklist of tasks you want
to tackle:
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- monitor blogs and social media for activity
- respond to comments, questions and wall posts
- post new blog about a chosen topic
- search for and add new contacts
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Results won't happen overnight, but SMM is to
some degree a "you get out of it what you put into it" proposition. The more you can invest in the
proposition, the greater the likelihood that you'll realize positive business benefits.
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Gauging the effectiveness of your SMM campaign
isn't necessarily an exact science, but there are ways to know whether or not you're reaching people,
or reaching out to the right people. You can use analytics tools such as Google Analytics, which
is free, and Omniture to measure how many visitors you're getting to your social media sites, how
much time and how many pages they're viewing while they're on your page(s), and whether those
guests are following through with a visit to your business website. Many of the social networking and SMM
websites you join offer their own tools for measuring the volume and type of activities you're
attracting with your profile and your activities through that profile.
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With or without tools, though, you can note some
trends on your own. Who are the people viewing and commenting on your posts or wall comments? Do
these people embody your target audience, or are they influencers in your industry? Are you experiencing an uptick in traffic to your own website, or receiving more inquiries or sales? How many people are
subscribing to your RSS feeds?
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Simple SMM Do's and Don'ts
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- Be open, honest and unselfish in your use of
social media and networking applications.
- Address issues that are meaningful to your
target audience. Put them first.
- Provide fresh insight and original content.
- Listen to your contacts and respond in a way
that is meaningful and useful to them.
- Provide ways for people to contact you for
additional support.
- Provide links to other useful resources. Remember, social media is about what
you can do for others.
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Don't ...
- Wait for an invitation: Reach out to your
audience.
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Sneak in a sales pitch. This is a turnoff to people looking for
information and support.
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Talk too much about yourself or your company. Keep the focus on what's
interesting to your audience.
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Forget to monitor your feedback and respond swiftly.
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Overlook the importance of having a good hosting provider. You need a
reliable server infrastructure that's equipped to handle
traffic spikes.
getFound on Google, Yahoo, Bing, Twitter, Facebook, Google Buzz, Wordpress Blog, Craigslist and Yelp.
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