Best Use of Social Media

The question is not whether to use social media to market or promote your business but how best to do it. When the opinions of just a few hundred people can impact the success of your business, knowing which social media marketing method to use is critical.

Marketing your business used to be easy. Depending on the success of the chosen ad campaign, you might see extra foot traffic or visits to your company website where you could sell more products.

Then social media happened. Now, instead of just being able to pay for guaranteed coverage, you have the added distractions of social media crowd think—where the opinions of hundreds of friends could impact how your brand’s message is received.

The question is which methods are best for your business? For any business looking to use social media as its primary channel for marketing or advertising, there are three main options: paid (involves buying ads and media slots), earned (reactions to your marketing efforts, with features and blog posts elsewhere) and owned (your own content used for inbound marketing tactics).

The paid model, using social advertising methods like Facebook Sponsored Stories, LinkedIn Ads or Twitter Promoted Tweets, can offer mixed results. The paid model offers both pros and cons for small-business owners, as it can be cost-effective, but often needs to have a larger budget than the business can afford, to really see results.

Prior to social media, the most effective marketing method for many businesses was word-of-mouth and whilst this is still valid, the dynamics have changed. Instead of close relationships, social “influencers” have gained the trust and loyalty of customers, and these influencers can help business when it comes to putting brands on the lips of their followers.

By developing relationships with key influencers and having the potential for your brand message or product to be shared and/or endorsed by them, can help build a level of confidence and interest in the brand, which will lead to more customers, more sales and more advocacy.

From an article by Danny Brown, VP, Marketing & Technology, ArCompany

Share how you use social media to market or promote your business.