WSI Blog - Internet Marketing Tips and Strategies

A branded social media presence is inexpensive and very valuable to any company. Marketing and new business may be the first things to come to mind when you think of social media marketing however you can make a social media page like Facebook do a lot more for your company:

1. Find Quality Employees and Keep them Longer:

Actively using social media will ultimately build your brand online. Which will aide human resources by attracting more job candidates. Encouraging current employees to use social media by corporate blogging or running a company Facebook page will make staff happy and encourage them to stay longer.

Ultimately this will decrease employee turnover thus lowering hiring and training costs and lower costs for job advertising.

2. Communicate with Customers:

A social media presence makes you more available to your customer. Allow your social media sites to become a line of communication between you and current or potential customers. Use social media to address timely customer problems and needs in an open and public setting. This type of accountability will go a long way with customers and build their trust.

This method of customer service will cause less customer churn and lower customer acquisition costs and increase customer conversion rates.

3. Share News and Build Media Relations:

Social media is being used more and more by traditional journalists as well as bloggers etc. It is a great way to spread news and information as well as sharing photos, links and videos. Get the word out and educate consumers and journalists alike.

When press about your company is reposted to another site it increases attention to your brand and business and can increase traffic to your website and ultimately grow your customer base.

It is no big secret that content is a huge contributor to your search engine ranking. Unfortunately it is possible to have terrific content within your site but still not rank on Google's first page. 

Having quality content is a great first step but it needs to be done with Search Engine Optimization (SEO) in mind from the start.

Google uses two things to prioritize its search rankings.

1. Inside Content - The most obvious determination of rank is within your content. Google will search your content for related keywords. Keywords should be used in headings, sub headings, bullets and internal link text. 

2. Outside Content - The second factor in determining your rank is slightly more complicated to master. Google looks at your website and then looks at all the external links that point to your website. Google sees these links as recommendations for your site and the content that you have within your site. Basically it builds your credibility and Google ranks your website based on the number of related links. 

Adjusting the keywords you use and the frequency with which you use them is a fairly simple task. Getting these external links to your site is not as simple. Blogging and writing articles to appear on content marketing websites, such as HubPages and Squidoo, can increase links back to your site and hopefully ignite conversation about your topics and point to your site within the conversation. 

In addition to these methods you can also ask a related website to trade links with you. Offer to post a link to their site in return for a link from their site to yours. 

Finally use conversation as a tool to accrue links back to your site. Social Media Marketing is a great way to reach a large target audience and get them talking and clicking back to your site. Social media sites vary greatly but whether you're sharing a video, promoting a blog or plugging a webinar these sites spark interest and encourage conversation. Combining content with conversation is key to SEO success.

Facebook is often thought of as a site where young college students socialize and discuss the latest event and what to wear. For many it is the last place they would think to promote their business using Facebook social media marketing. However InsiderFacebook.com has reported that while two years ago Facebook's demographic was made up of those 35 years and older, today it's made up of woman over 55. In fact, 45% of Facebook's audience is 26 years and older.

Each user spends their time on Facebook in different ways; however the average user is spending 55 minutes a day on the site. Think of that as 55 minutes with a captive audience who is not getting up for a snack during the commercial breaks. Facebook social media marketing has so much information about its users that you can target a marketing campaign to women between the ages of 24-30 years in a specific geographic location and have their relationship status set to 'engaged'. In fact a photography studio called CM Photographic did just this and over the period of 12 months generated $40,000 in revenue directly from the $600 they spent on this Facebook social media marketing campaign.

Not sure how to get Facebook to work for you? "

Follow these four steps to market your business on Facebook:

1. Facebook Advertising - determine your target audience including age, sex, location and lifestyle. While those people may not be searching for your product on Facebook they are in a position to need your services. Use Facebook's business tools to write optimal ads and ensure that your campaign is strong enough to entice your potential customers.

2. Facebook Pages - Facebook requires you to have a personal page before you can have a business page. Due to the nature of Facebook you may have concern that a photo of you asleep on the couch with a magic marker mustache courtesy of your toddler is not how you want your business associates to see you. Facebook's privacy settings allow you to totally separate your personal and business pages while also allowing you to control what information you want users to be able to see. Familiarize yourself with these settings to ensure that you won't have any personal and professional blunders.

3. Get The Word Out - Now that you have a Facebook Page it's time to spread the word.
• Send an email blast to your contacts alerting them of the page.
• Use your website to alert visitors that they can find you on Facebook.
• Encourage people to follow you on Facebook by using a contest or promotion.
• Run a Facebook ad campaign targeting your ideal audience and invite them to join your fan page.

4. Facebook Events - By inviting your audience to events via Facebook you are utilizing the event tool while promoting your company. When someone replies that they will be attending your event it automatically gets posted to their Facebook page thus alerting all of their friends and potentially encouraging them to attend as well or at least find out more about you.

Facebook has proven that it is here to stay. It's time to start using it to your advantage and incorporating this into your social media marketing campaigns. 

Watch our webinar on Facebook Social Media Marketing