It wasn't until 1997 that the Internet reached 50 million users in the
United States. Facebook gained over 100 million users in the U.S. from
January 2009 to January 2010, marking a 145 percent growth rate within
one year, according to research by digital marketing agency iStrategy
Labs. If you're a business owner that hasn't embraced social media
networking as a major component of your success strategy, it's due time
to hop onboard. 'When you've got 300 million people on Facebook, that's social media marketing blog
a huge business watering hole,' says Lon Safko, social media expert and
co-author of The Social Media Bible: Tactics, Tools, and Strategies for
Business Success, of the site's global reach. 'The profile is like an
index to your company.' While Facebook has become the most popular
social media site, there are plenty of others for your company to
explore. LinkedIn, for example, houses 55 million professionals seeking
jobs, employees, or basic business or networking opportunities. MySpace,
which allows users to tinker with music, themes, and HTML code, is
targeted toward youth and teens. All of these sites have one primary
thing in common: the profile. The user profile is generally what
distinguishes social networking sites from other social media platforms.
It helps set the stage for building relationships with people who share
the same interests, activities, or personal contacts, as opposed to
primarily disseminating or digesting information feeds. This also means
social networks enable companies to invite audiences to get to know its
brand in a way that traditional forms of marketing or advertising can't.
But what, exactly, are the importance of social media marketing
methods that businesses should use to effectively leverage the
burgeoning userbase of these sites as a tool to grow their companies?
The following pages will detail what to do – and what not to do – in
order to maintain a viable presence in the realm of social networking.
Improving your blogging and social media efforts can be the key to building any small business. No matter who your customers, suppliers or partners are, no matter what business you are in or what you sell, there’s a good bet you can expand your business online. And the best way for you to reach out and leverage your brand and unique approach on the Web is through blogsand social media. Want to know more? Have we got the roundup for you! In order to get the word out to the demographic you have in mind, it’s important to understand what social networks individuals prefer. Facebook spans the ages, with teens, young adults, social media marketing pdf and older adults frequently logging on. High school and college students, however, are slowly moving to more instant alternatives, like Twitter and Instagram. Pinterest attracts college-age and young adults, inspiring creative collaboration, while LinkedIn is catered towards professionals of all ages. By targeting the right network choice, companies have a much better opportunity to target the right individuals. Most companies choose to maximize their options, creating profiles on a majority of social networking sites in order to attract as many individuals as possible through all possible routes. Targeting your audience is about more than simply identifying the right social network, however. In order to create the right approach to social media marketing, it’s important to consider what draws your audience in. While teens may be attracted to catchy pictures and sassy quotes, older adults may be more drawn to studies and current events and young adults might be willing to click on a few more links if it means the chance of a giveaway. There are numerous factors driving strategic decisions, making it important to understand what your business has to offer. For example, a mechanic’s shop can attract customers by offering a free service appointment while clothing retailers may be more interested in promoting social media for marketing coupons offering a percentage off purchases. Many small and medium-sized businesses promote campaigns, offering benefits to users who subscribe to an email newsletter, sign up for automated texts, or follow a company account on Twitter. By offering incentives for simple actions, companies can create a customer base. Most sites, especially retail sites, offer a way for customers to register, accumulate rewards, or take advantage of unique members-only offerings. Once a business finds the right incentives to offer users, it’s much easier to draw create subscriber lists. With this methodology, it’s easier than ever to track progress and view the results of a social media campaign in real time.
Social media goes to journalism school
When Twitter said it would lay off 8 per cent of its workforce in October, it was the latest sign that the microblog's bid to become the global public sphere that its founders had envisioned, was failing. User growth had fizzled out as newer, image-based services like Instagram and Snapchat took flight. Profits, once ready to blossom, were more elusive than ever. Its shares recently traded at an all-time low. Analysts diagnosed the ailment: a bloated workforce producing a chaotic product that was more public nuisance than public tool. Co-founder and new chief executive Jack Dorsey's cure? News. 'Twitter just reinvented social media marketing applications the newspaper,' tech blogger Ben Thompson enthused about Twitter's new curated news feed service, Moments. Social media has upended everything from telephones to television to the written word, and its ever growing scope also overlaps with journalism. Media trade magazine Adweek called the transformation to being a real-time content hub 'today's Holy Grail' for tech companies. Twitter's Moments has joined Apple's News app, Snapchat's Live Stories and Facebook's Notify in the latest quest for relevance and user views. As traditional news outlets have struggled, news consumption in the US has remained strong. In 2015, tech companies saw an opportunity and doubled down on journalism projects, from the Google News Lab's plan to 'help build the future of media' to Snapchat's feature feed Discover, which seemingly overnight became what one featured publisher reportedly called 'the hottest ticket in town'. Emily Bell, director of Columbia University's Tow Centre for Digital Journalism and former online director of Britain's Guardian newspaper called the new initiatives a 'very important paradigm shift'. 'Platforms and distribution technologies which have been so beautifully developed, largely by companies in Silicon Valley, have become publishers themselves,' she said at a November conference on the news industry and social media. 'It doesn't mean they're doing the journalism, how to do social media marketing but they're certainly shaping what we do.' The partnership is a tempting one for both sides. For digital platforms, news is a lure to attract and keep users, while for news companies, social media is a conduit to billions of readers worldwide, with no added costs.Improving Your Blogging and Social Media
Improving your blogging and social media efforts can be the key to building any small business. No matter who your customers, suppliers or partners are, no matter what business you are in or what you sell, there’s a good bet you can expand your business online. And the best way for you to reach out and leverage your brand and unique approach on the Web is through blogsand social media. Want to know more? Have we got the roundup for you! In order to get the word out to the demographic you have in mind, it’s important to understand what social networks individuals prefer. Facebook spans the ages, with teens, young adults, social media marketing pdf and older adults frequently logging on. High school and college students, however, are slowly moving to more instant alternatives, like Twitter and Instagram. Pinterest attracts college-age and young adults, inspiring creative collaboration, while LinkedIn is catered towards professionals of all ages. By targeting the right network choice, companies have a much better opportunity to target the right individuals. Most companies choose to maximize their options, creating profiles on a majority of social networking sites in order to attract as many individuals as possible through all possible routes. Targeting your audience is about more than simply identifying the right social network, however. In order to create the right approach to social media marketing, it’s important to consider what draws your audience in. While teens may be attracted to catchy pictures and sassy quotes, older adults may be more drawn to studies and current events and young adults might be willing to click on a few more links if it means the chance of a giveaway. There are numerous factors driving strategic decisions, making it important to understand what your business has to offer. For example, a mechanic’s shop can attract customers by offering a free service appointment while clothing retailers may be more interested in promoting social media for marketing coupons offering a percentage off purchases. Many small and medium-sized businesses promote campaigns, offering benefits to users who subscribe to an email newsletter, sign up for automated texts, or follow a company account on Twitter. By offering incentives for simple actions, companies can create a customer base. Most sites, especially retail sites, offer a way for customers to register, accumulate rewards, or take advantage of unique members-only offerings. Once a business finds the right incentives to offer users, it’s much easier to draw create subscriber lists. With this methodology, it’s easier than ever to track progress and view the results of a social media campaign in real time.
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