Can Social Media Help My Business?

A lot of media attention has been given lately to social marketing, specifically with the surge in popularity of social sites like facebook and twitter. More and more businesses are asking the question, how can social media help my business. Before we answer that question, let's give a brief explanation of what social media is.

Think of social media like a big party. In traditional terms, if I was at a business function/party, I would make every effort to network and socialize using basic conversation with the optimal goal of finding people with common interests. Once I have met a few people with the same interests, I would try to use that contact for future reference.

Social media can work the same way. If you are not engaging in social sites, you won't get invited to the parties. Here are just some of the benefits of using social media as part of your marketing mix:

• Achieve recognition with a wider audience
• Create an online reputation, or improve an existing one
• Enhance your online credibility
• Attract brand and product evangelists
• Public Relations
• Mainstream Press & Link Attraction
• More Traffic

So now that we know WHY we should be involved in social media, the next step is figuring out where to go to get involved. Social Media is really a term used exclusively by internet marketers, and it encompasses many types of sites and networks where users can interact with each other.

Blogs

Starting with your own personal blog you can generate a buzz about your products or services, and start developing rich link worthy content. The next step is to find other like minded bloggers in the “Blogosphere”. A good place to meet bloggers and enhance your own blogging community is using sites like Technorati.

Microblogs / Tumblogs

Twitter. If you’re not using it, in the very LEAST you’ve heard of it. Twitter is a microblog. Most people use microblogging as a way to keep in touch and update in between blog posts. Twitter allows users to make posts of 140 characters or less. These little posts are called tweets. Using Twitter is an excellent way to stay current in your industry, meet like-minded individuals. This is also a fantastic way to learn more about your customers and their needs.

Not much unlike a microblog, there is a tumblog. Using a site called Tumblr, you can build a blog that also has its own networking capabilities. Building on a foundation of small updates, you can learn more about your network, and grow your company’s awareness in your Tumblr community.

Social Networking:

Big sites like MySpace, LinkedIn, and Facebook allow you to add a lot of content to your own pages and learn and grow a network through friends, colleagues, and new contacts. The way to make these sites work for your business is to find your niche.

Video Sharing Sites

Video is the new kid on the preverbal Social Media block, and everyone is about it right now. Last august YouTube passed Yahoo for total sure volume, that’s a huge deal. The key techniques to make video sharing sites work for you, is to be active in the community, lead with the URL in your description, and be present on multiple video sites. Using a service like TubeMogul can help to streamline the process of uploading videos to multiple sites.

Photo Sharing Sites

There are some awesome ways to use photo sharing sites like Flickr and photobucket to help increase your traffic and gain inbound quality links to your content.

Yahoo Answers:

This is the must use for social media! Many experts have said if you’ve only got 15 minutes a day to spend working on social media, that this is they way to spend it. Yahoo Answers is a forum type site that allows users to ask questions, give answers, and rank the answers given. You can get into very specific niche types of questions, and the more you answer, and you’re answers are voted as important, the more visible you can become in this network. A lot of traffic can be sent from Yahoo Answers.

Social News and Bookmarking Sites:

Social news sites collect the most popular content on the net and present it to the users. Users then can vote on the content, or even submit their own. The heavy hitters in this realm include Digg, Reddit, Stumble Upon and more. When you have content that hits the front page of these sites it can send an astronomical amount of unique visitors to your site. This is great for exposure and gaining new readers or visitors. The important things to remember are to have GOOD hosting that can handle a sudden spike in readership, and that not ALL businesses can do well on the main social news sites.

So now you know what, and where….so it’s time for how. How do you build up your company via social media? Take these steps below:

• Find out where people are active
• Track active members and get aquainted with the community
• Internally message members of interest, introduce yourself. BE real. DON’T send canned
• Build out your networks
• Contribute to the communities
• Make the sites work together for you
• HAVE GOOD HOSTING

Taking these strategies and applying them to your efforts socially will help you to increase your visibility, brand awareness, and do it WITHOUT looking like a spammer.