“Is Social Media Marketing Free to Everybody”

That is the Question.

What is Social Media? Social media refers to the means of interactions among people in which they create, share, and exchange information and ideas in virtual communities and networks. ~ Andreas Kaplan.

What is Social media Marketing? Social media marketing refers to the process of creating awareness and funneling prospects to company websites through social media sites. ~Alison Shark

Time, knowledge and a social media platform is all you need to put together an effective social media marketing campaign, isn’t it?

Now, can you guess which of these is free? They are all free you say, and you may be right, but let’s take a closer look at each of them.

Social Media platforms: Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, WordPress and Tumbler are all examples of social media platforms, and yes you can set up a profile on each of these social media sites without paying one Red cent of actual currency,  you could definitely say, they are free for everybody to use.

Time: Your time is your own, isn’t it? The free time you have, when you are not in your place of business is yours. So you can say that your time is free also.

Knowledge: You have accumulated a lot of knowledge about marketing through running your own business; you know how to create an advertisement that will get your client or prospect’s attention. You already have the marketing knowledge you need, so you can say that is free as well.

Have we determined that Social Media Marketing is Free? I believe the answer to this question is no, and in my next blog I will outline why.

I would love to hear your opinion? please leave a comment.

Kind regards,

Brendan Dunne.

“If I cannot use social media to sell, why should I use social media”

The hands on my watch never stop, they continue on their never-ending journey into time yet to pass; and yet there are some people in the business world who believe that time has stopped for them, they believe that every interaction they have with their customers and clients regardless of the location has to be sales orientated. When they cannot see direct results from their marketing activities, they believe that particular marketing activity should stop.

They are of course correct but, business owners need to look at the big picture especially when dealing with social media platforms; not all sales activities begin and end on the same day or in the same place for that matter.

Social media platforms are the equivalent of networking events, they just take place over-time on the internet instead of in a hotel or The Waterford Crystal visitor centre, where I had the privilege of attending a networking event last evening.

Let’s look at a couple of examples of using social media, the first example is going to be from a business that wants to use social media platforms to be social and the second is going to show a business that wants to use social media platforms to sell. They are taken a little out of context but, the message is clear.

 Using Social Media to be social

Jim looks happy.

Jim walked up to where a girl was standing in a public house and said “Hello, how are you?” The girl replied, “I’m feeling great, thank you for asking, and how are you?” The conversation continued and Jim found out the girl’s name was Jill; he also found out that they had a great deal of interests in common. At the end of the night, Jim asked Jill if she would like to meet again?” to which she replied, yes; so they agreed to exchange telephone numbers and stay in touch. After meeting socially on a number of occasions, Jim decided to offer Jill a lift home? To which Jill replied, yes please, so they got into Jim’s car and headed off down the road.

 Using Social Media to sell

Jim walks into a public house and notices there are a number of women who appear to be on their own. Jim walks up to the first women and says, “I want you to be the mother of my children.” The woman looked at Jim as if he had two heads, and then proceeded to call over the Bouncer to have Jim evicted from the premises.

• Jim did well when he acted appropriately, he got his sale but, when Jim acted in an inappropriate manner, all he received was his marching orders.

Why use Social Media

Communication has the key to Success.

There is always the right time and the right place to interact with your customers and clients, and when it is done correctly, social media platforms will provide your business owners with the following:

• Connection to customers and clients
• Building your brand
• Brand loyalty
• Promotion
• Building credibility within your industry.
• Keeping an eye on the competition
• Inviting customers and clients to visit your other online sites, where sales can take place.

Social media platforms are a great way for business’s to interact socially with their clients and customers. The question every business owner needs to ask before they stop using social media marketing is;

* If I don’t inform all those people who are using social media platforms of where my business is and what we provide? Who will? 

* Sales will be generated as a result of using Social Media, not because of using Social Media.

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“Are you missing posts from your favourite people on Facebook?”

 

Facebook has approximately one billion users to date and is getting busier and busier as the days pass by; Facebook are using their Edgerank software to ensure you see as many posts as possible, but there will always be a few posts that slip by without you seeing them, unless you take the following steps.

Liked button drop-down menu.

1) Go to your favourite person or business’s Facebook page.

2) Hover your cursor over the Liked button on the top right of the page, and a drop-down menu will appear.

3) Click on the get notifications sign.

Facebook notification.

After you have completed this process, you will never again miss an important post, because when that person or business posts a message on Facebook, you will be notified on your Facebook Home page.

Please share this message with your social media friends using the links below.

Thank you.

“How to send posts to people who want to hear from you, using Facebook’s business pages”

“It is better to speak with one customer who needs your product or service, rather than 1000 people who are prepared to listen to you.”

The above sentence should be the mantra for all business people who are using Facebook business pages to send posts to their customers. Facebook give you the option to target who is going to receive your messages, the least you can do is use it.

The Facebook feature I’m talking about is the post privacy gating option. This feature can be made available by ticking the box at the bottom of manage permission page in the edit section of your Facebook business page.

Post privacy gating option.

This feature allows you to target who is going to see your posts under the following demographic headings.

1. Gender
2. Relationship status
3. Educational status
4. Interests
5. Age
6. Location
7. Language

There will be times when the messages you want to send to one group is not suitable to send to everyone and this is where the post privacy gating feature is very useful.

Below are three examples of how the post privacy gating feature could be used:

• When you are posting content, that is specifically targeting women who are over 40 years of age, who are married, who have a degree, who are interested in horse riding, who live in the Washington DC area and who also speak Spanish; this is the feature to use.
• Another example could be; where your content is targeting men who are over forty years of age and not in a relationship.
• You are going to send a message to the American people who have liked your Facebook business page wishing them a happy Independence Day. In this situation you would use the location demographic to ensure the message is sent to the appropriate people.

Suitable?

There are other examples but I’m a gentleman at heart and couldn’t possible repeat them on this page.

As you input the demographics into the post privacy gating feature, you will get a count of how many people, who have liked your Facebook page, will fit into those criteria.

The insights page will show you how successful the post was in reaching your intended demographic audience. Depending on results you may decide to promote the post.

There is some anecdotal evidence to suggest that by using the post privacy gating feature; this will help you with your Facebook Edgerank, this has yet to be proven, but it is worth keeping this in mind, when you are looking over your results.

Using the post privacy feature will mean you are going to accomplish the following:

**Sending the right message, to the right people, at the right time is the foundation for every successful business promotion.

Sharing helps.

 

And that is good for your business.

Click on the following links to follow me on Twitter or like my Facebook page.

…

 

“What return on investment can a small business expect to get from using Social Media marketing”

This question was put to me on Twitter during the week, but given the 140 character limit on tweets, I decided to write this blog post on the topic instead.

This is the most important question that every business owner would like to have answered before they invest their hard-earned money on a social media campaign. The question is a valid one, but before we could possibly find the answer to the question we postulated above, we need to answer the following questions:

1.       Is the Internet infrastructure available?
2.       What is the businesses current stage of development?
3.       Does the business have a marketing budget?
4.       Are your potential customers online?
5.       Does the business have the expertise to run a social media campaign?
6.       What social media platform is best suited for the product or service?
7.       What can be achieved by using Social media marketing?

Is the Internet infrastructure available?

In the majority of first world countries, this question is moot because an internet infrastructure is widely available, there are some exceptions. There are geographical areas in some first world countries, where people are cut off from this type of technology. In third world countries such as Bolivia, the internet infrastructure does not exist, and therefore a social media campaign would not be a viable option.

What is the businesses current stage of development?

An established business will be able to build their social media marketing campaigns on the business relationships they already have with their customers or clients, whereas a business that has just been established will be required to start from a much lower position of power. 

Does the business have a marketing budget?

There are no costs in setting up a business profile on any of the social media platforms, but in order to use those social media platforms effectively, a business needs to invest in promoting their online activities through traditional marketing techniques and digital promotion options provided by the social media platform providers such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

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Are your potential customers online?

This question can only be answered with research, but given that there are up to 1 billion Facebook users, 500 million Twitter profiles and 300 million on LinkedIn, the chances of finding the people who have need of your products and services are quite good. 

Does the business have the expertise to run a social media campaign?

If your business does not have the personnel, who are knowledgeable about how social media marketing works? The return on investment will be limited. Social media marketing is not rocket science, but understanding how it works requires time.

What social media platform is best suited for the product or service?

The social media platform you decide to use should be determined by, what is the best fit for your business? Whether you operate in a B2B or a B2C environment, will determine which of the social media platforms is the best fit for your business.

What can be achieved by using Social media marketing?

Social media marketing, like all marketing, is about creating and building relationships with your public’s, it is a brand building exercise, a place where you interact in a social setting with your customers, and it is their choice whether to interact with you or not, because all social media platforms operate on an opt-in basis. Social media platforms are places where you interact with prospects and invite them to the areas of your business, where sales transactions can take place.

*Your business will be successful as a result of using social media, and not because of using it.

*-* So what will be our return on investment from using social media marketing? Given the number of uncontrollable variables involved, answering that question would be nearly impossible as each business will have uniquely different answers to the above questions, but the question you should be asking is,   

*“How much will it cost me, if I don’t move with the competition and use Social media marketing?”

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“How to Use the Search Engine on Twitter to Benefit You”

Twitter for Business

Twitter is a social media platform where people with similar interests interact through short messages, which contain a maximum of 140 characters called tweets.

At the last count, there were approximately 500 million people using this social media platform. When you have this number of people socialising in any location, you will find marketers who wish to get their attention.

This is a very good idea but, when you are an entrepreneur without a marketing department, how do you identify the people you want to interact with? When there are so many people to target. This is where Twitter’s search engine comes into its own; it gives you the technology to narrow down your search, and target the people you would like to interact with.

The hashtag (#) can be used to communicate but, it can also be used to locate the people who are discussing certain topics, for example, if you put in the word #fashion into Twitter’s search engine, you will narrow down all the people who are discussing that topic. That’s great but, what happens if you have a niche business and they are not using hashtags with their tweets?

This is where Twitter’s advanced search can be used; the advanced search engine allows you to specifically target your potential clients through the words, people and locations which are specific to your industry. This tool is very efficient for people like engineers, architects, electricians and other service providers who are not mainstream but use very specific phrases in their chosen professions.

This is also used by mainstream media professionals, who want to be at the forefront of breaking stories. Twitter has been identified as one of the main sources for breaking stories world-wide in recent times.

The advance search engine can be accessed by this link or when you put a word in the normal search engine box and press enter, the advanced search engine can be access on the results page. In the example below, I have typed the word funny into the search engine box, and this is the results page. By clicking on the wheel on the top right of the page, a drop-down menu appears which gives you the option to access the advanced search engine.

Twitter’s search results page.

The results from each search will show you the tweets being shared in relation to your search parameter, and the people who have chosen to be associated to the topic through their profile page.

Search engine location.

Twitter also give you the option to save each search parameter you use, the save option is found in the same location as the advanced search engine option on the results page, this means that you only have to fill in the advanced search form once for each topic. The next time you want to search for the same parameters, just click into the search engine box and your saved searches will be seen in the form of a drop-down menu.

• Twitter is a great social media platform for communicating with the right people, as long as you use the Twitter tools they provide.
• Identify you customer and then locate them on Twitter.

I hope you found the information to be of interest, please click on the links to follow me on Twitter or like my page on Facebook

“I Do Not Require a Facebook Business Page. Do I?”

Facebook! Never!

The following couple of lines are the most popular excuses given by SME business owners, when somebody suggested, they should set up a Facebook business page.

• Excuses for not setting up a Facebook business page.

*A Facebook business page, I think not, no, it’s not for me, I do not know how to set it up, and in the economy we are currently operating in, I cannot afford to pay somebody to set it up for me.

*No, no it’s not for me at all, not to mention, it takes time to get people to like a Facebook business page, whereas I can have 20 new Facebook friends with a few clicks of my mouse.

*I can post the same information to thousands of my friends from my personal Facebook profile as I could from a Facebook business page, to a smaller audience, why should I do that?

• All of the above seem to be valid reasons for not setting up a Facebook business page, except for one huge stumbling block, which is; it is against Facebook’s terms and conditions to use a personal profile as a business page.

Not jail this time.

What does this mean for anybody who currently uses their personal Facebook page as their business page? The Facebook terms and conditions are quite clear where this is concerned; anybody caught using their personal Facebook page for business purposes, will have their Facebook page deleted.

“I will be able to open another Facebook page and reconnect with my friends” you say, and yes, you are correct, as long as you get written permission to do so, from Facebook.

All of the above are reasons not to set up a Facebook business page, now let us look at the reasons to set up a Facebook business page.

Reasons for setting up a Facebook business page.

1)   The most important reason for having a Facebook business page is Facebook insights. The Facebook insights data is available to all business pages which have been liked by more than 30 people.

Overview of Facebook Insights

• How many people your posts have reached?
• How many people are engaging with, and talking about your posts? The insights also show you the number of people who click on your post, but decide not to leave a like or a comment, some experts think that this number could be as high as 50 percent.

Demographics of Facebook likes.

• The insights show you the demographics information relating the people who have liked your page. This information shows the business owner if the right people is being targeted.

When you have access to this valuable insights information, you can clearly see; what works? And what you need to change?

2)   A Facebook business page helps to give your brand that professional image.

3)   The Facebook tabs give your visitors access to your other social media activities such as Twitter or Pinterest.

4)   A Facebook business page allows you access to Facebook advertising. An ideal way of targeting the audience with the messages you want them to see.

5)   A Facebook business page gives the business owner, the ability to delegate page administration duties to other members of staff, without giving them access to their personal information.

6)   A Facebook business page’s about section is designed to give potential clients, a clear understanding of the business, what the business stands for, what the business provides, where the business is located, and how the business can be contacted?

7)   There is no limit to the number of people who can like a Facebook business page; a personal Facebook page, on the other hand, has a 5000 friend limit; if a business owner has serious aspirations for the future of their business on Facebook, this is a limiting factor they have to take into account.

Facebook! Forever!

• The number of reasons to set up a Facebook business page exceeds the number of reasons not to, even if using a personal Facebook page for business was allowed.

• Facebook will work for your business, but only if you work with Facebook.

“How to use the Hashtag symbol to communicate on Twitter”

According to the latest Ipsos MRBI poll there are an estimated 385,000 Irish tweeters using Twitter to communicate and there are up to 500 million Twitter subscribers worldwide. This number of tweeters creates a lot of tweets and in the process a lot of noise. This makes finding the right conversation and information on Twitter very difficult to find.

This is where the hashtag symbol (#) plays an important role in isolating the communities, people and conversations you want to follow. To use the hashtag symbol, you simply type the hashtag symbol (#) into the search area at the top of your Twitter home page, along with the word or words you want to locate on Twitter and press the enter key.

The following is a good example of how the hashtag is used to make somebody’s tweets easy to find.

Name: Kim Garst Twitter address: @kimgarst: Hashtag #youcandosocial

Kim is on the Forbes Top 50 Social Media Power Influencers  list of 2012, and the hashtag (#youcandosocial) is predominately associated with Kim’s tweets, this makes it easy for people who are interested in what Kim has to say, to locate Kim’s tweets.

The next example is how like-minded communities can use the hashtag to communicate more efficiently on Twitter.

The S.M.E community is a network of Irish S.M.E’s that support, advise & connect through social media. When a member of the community finds information that they believe is relevant to the community, they add the #SMEcommunity hashtag to their tweets and this allows the rest of the members to access the information too.

The next example is how specific conversations can use the hashtag symbol (#) to communicate, you see this every day on Twitter via the trending topics. On the left hand side of your Twitter home page, you will see the top 10 trending topics that are being discussed on Twitter at that moment. The top 5 trending topics at the moment are,

• #ScooterBraunFollowJanoskians
• #AskUnionJ
• #GoldenGlobes
• #GAA
• #irishblockbusters

Communicate

By clicking on the links, you will see what is being said about each topic, or if you want to join in the conversations, you simply add the appropriate link to your tweet.

The hashtag symbol (#) is a great way of interacting with your interests.

Please share this post with those who haven’t heard about hashtags.

Do I need you to press the like button on my Facebook page?

Facebook

Before we can answer the question hypothesized in the heading, we have to decide on why do we want to use a  Facebook business page in the first place?

Is our goal to get as many likes as possible for our business page, regardless of where they originate?

Or do we want to create a social media platform, where we can share with our clients, customers and stakeholders; the values and information we want associated with our business.

When you state, what you want to achieve using Facebook? The answer seems quite simple. Yes, we want to interact with the people on whom we rely on to pay our bills, and no, we do not want to interact with people who have no interest in the products and services we provide.

The above answer is not quite so simple for some businesses whose target market is diverse; they may have different people using their products and services at different times of the year. Some service providers target market is so diverse that everybody is a potential client.

Do you?

Social media marketing is about engaging with your customers or clients in a social setting. There is little point in engaging with people on your Facebook business page who are never going to need your product or service; that is equivalent to having a conversation with your neighbour during the middle of your working day, its unprofitable behaviour and wastes your valuable time.

*Identify your target market; they are the people you need to press the like button on your businesses Facebook page.

“Social Media Marketing builds on the Relationships you already have with your Clients”

The secret to good social media marketing is not a secret; it requires the same attributes as those required for growing your business; producing great products or providing excellent services. When you put the company values along with these products and services, you have the foundation for all your social media marketing.

The target-market for all your social media marketing promotions is people who have a need for your product or service; this starts by informing your current customers or clients as to where you are to be found online. If You are on the Internet? Help Your Customers Find You.

The messages and images you promote relating to your business should be in line with your company values; fluffy bunnies shouldn’t be associated with a builder’s providers social media campaign, I’m sure you get the idea. We Learn by Association. What Values do you Associate with your Business?

Social media platforms are not designed to be sales outlets, that is what your place of business or website is designed to accomplish; you should provide information on your social media platforms that your customers and clients would like to see when they are being social. “A Varied Content Keeps Your Customers Engaged”

Social media marketing provides you with the opportunity to interact with your customers and clients on a personal level; it’s not good enough to use the company’s name and logo on your social media platforms and hope to interact with your customers and clients; you need to provide a real person with whom your customers can interact with. “How to Increase Your Businesses Interaction on Twitter” This blog was written specifically with Twitter in mind, but the message is transferable across all social media platforms.

Social media marketing provides you with the opportunity to show off your industry knowledge; by sharing information which will be of benefit to your customers and clients; you will gain positive sentiment for your business by being associated with this material. “Promoting other people’s Content is Beneficial to You”

In order for your social media marketing to be successful, you will need to integrate all your social media platforms; each social media platform is designed for a specific type of communication and should be used accordingly. An example of this is Twitter where each message can contain only 140 characters, this for most people is not enough to provide sufficient product information required by a client. “Integrating Your Social Media Platforms is necessary to Succeed.”

Social media is the greatest word of mouth marketing tool at your disposal, by informing your current customers of where you are, and then providing them with information that is worth sharing with their friends, you are on your way to creating a successful social media campaign.

• Businesses grow as a result of using social media not because of using social media.