Social Media Marketing for people who don’t care for Social Media
“I know I should be using social media for my marketing but remain uncertain how to start, or where?” “If there were some way to understand how it worked and, more importantly, how it could be relevant for the small business, then perhaps it would make more sense”.
These are some of the comments I get when I mention what I do. I set up depledgeMEDIA last year to help small local businesses and organisations get to grips with social media, as a way to effectively market themselves. There is still a feeling that there are many small companies that realise they should be using the internet but are unsure where to start or even to start at all!
Well, one thing is very clear, you need to be using social media right now. The difficulty is working out how much you need to use it. The case for major companies and brands using Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and all the other well known sites is by now pretty well established. What is less clear are the benefits that small companies can gain.
By The Dart has been developing its social media marketing network for some years now. Working with a small budget and limited hours it now has a system that can potentially reach and/or influence many hundreds of thousands of people through the magic of networking. This used to be called ‘word of mouth’ recommendation. With the advent of the digital era, WOM has been transformed into online recommendations, known as ‘sharing’. And it has massive reach.
Here’s how it works. People (read ‘customers and potential customers’) with social media accounts find things they are interested in online and ‘share’ them with their friends. The beauty of the networking principle means that one person sharing a ‘post’ on their site with a couple of hundred followers can quickly reach thousands even if only a few people pass it on. An example of the reach of social media happened at the Dart Music Festival a couple of years ago. I arranged for some of the festival to be videoed. This was subsequently put on YouTube and various other social sites. To date, the total number of people who have watched this footage is over 500,000.
So how do you do it right? The best way is to find someone who will discuss your business or organisation with you in a friendly, informal way initially, with no obligation. Get them to understand what you want to achieve with online marketing. Make sure they understand your business, your customers and your standards. When you feel happy that they get it, I suggest you start off gently. Perhaps a 3 month trial to get a few things set up and running. Discuss progress at regular meetings or contacts. At the end of the 3 months sit down again and examine the situation. Have you been kept fully informed? Are you happy with the early results? If it all feels good you may want to take over the management of your new social marketing sites yourself. You should be offered support to achieve this with back up if things don’t go quite the way you hoped. Or you may decide to continue using the company to run your sites on your behalf.
The good thing about this kind of marketing is that you control it. You set the budget, both in time and money. You decide how much or how little you spend. Don’t try to do too much, too soon. It is much more difficult to understand and monitor your progress if you are dealing with 5 or 6 new sites. Try 1 or 2 to begin with. Generally speaking you get more effective results by combining sites. However, this only works if everything is set up correctly in the first place and is performing well.
The rate of development in social media is another area of concern if you decide to manage your own sites. Development is relentless and sites are constantly changing. This means that someone with a casual knowledge of Facebook they acquired a couple of years ago would now struggle to run a Facebook business page in 2014. The good news is there are companies that can do this for you.
A friend of mine has an interest in the weather. He started a Facebook page just over a year ago. As an amateur, he publishes his thoughts about the weather in and around Somerset. Despite intense competition from TV news programmes and the like, he has built up a following of 3,000 fans. He also started a Twitter account in 2013 and now has over 1,000 followers. This is his passion. It is not his business, but it could be.
There are certain basic elements of running a social media site for business. Firstly it will need to be actioned on a regular basis. Different sites require different schedules but regularity is key.
Secondly you will need to supply good quality images. Most people use a smart phone because it is easy to ‘share’ images from. You can also use images from your computer, laptop or tablet. Marketing on the internet is now totally driven by imagery and video. Without them, no-one will bother with your site.
The third most important element is to seek and foster engagement with your followers. These are social sites after all. This is probably the most important reason for undertaking the exercise in the first place – the ability to engage with existing and potential customers.
Lastly I believe the reason lots of businesses don’t do better with social marketing is because all they do is try to sell, sell, sell! Create things that are hilarious, sad, beautiful, interesting, inspiring or just plain awesome and you will attract followers some of whom will become customers.
Just remember, online is where your customers are. This is the marketplace. Shouldn’t you be there?
First published By the Dart October 2014
