There is a lot of talk about social media, and this topic has been addressed before. However, it’s a certainty that Social Media Marketing (SMM) is constantly changing. All music dealers are at a different stage when it comes to their marketing plans. Some are just getting started, whereas others are experienced pros. The spirit of this article is to help all users, at all levels, take advantage of SMM and use it to help their businesses.
Before we get started, I’d like to ask an important question: how well do you understand the term Social Media Marketing?
Social Media Marketing is a method of marketing on the Internet using various social-media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and many others. With the introduction of these social-media sites, technology has made it more efficient and convenient to advertise. Businesses and individuals have discovered that it’s now easier to promote and market their products and services.
For very little cost, you can create awareness, build interest and gain sales momentum. With the Internet becoming more engrained in our daily lives, SMM has gained an edge over other, more traditional marketing methods.
SMM can help every kind of business expand their reach to more customers and attract mass attention from the general public and consumers. Whether your company is targeting new business or finding ways to help with retention, customers today interact with brands and retailers through social media. Having a strong presence using these channels is the key to tapping into their interests. If implemented correctly, SMM can bring remarkable results.
SMM basically enables you to utilize a wide variety of media to promote your business. It can be done through various types of content, including images, videos, sound and text. It gives you a perfect recipe to introduce and grow your business with less cost and high returns.
Now that you understand what SMM is and what the benefits are, how do you engage people by using it as a marketing tool? What follows are a few ways to get prospects and customers to take notice.
Passive Approach
Social media can be a useful source of market information, and a way to project your customer’s voice. Blogs, content communities and forums are common mediums to share reviews and recommendations of brands, products, retailers and services. As a result, social media has become a convenient and inexpensive tool that helps marketers identify problems and opportunities. Diligent work in these areas yields positive results.
Active Approach
Social media can actively assist in public relations and marketing. It can be directly used as a communication channel to target and tap specific audiences, and as an effective and measurable customer-engagement tool. Using customer influencers (e.g., product user forums) can be an efficient and cost-effective method to announce new products or services.
Engagement
An engagement, in a social Web context, portrays customers as participants rather than as viewers. When it comes to SMM, all are allowed to share their views, ideas, opinions and suggestions along the retailer’s path to market its product or service.
Initiating A Social-Media Campaign
A careful assessment of your goals and resources is in order prior to creating your social-media campaign. The right campaign delivered to the right audience can yield great results.
What do you want to accomplish?
Build Your Web Site Traffic
Offer incentives to visit your Web site. Try running a contest and giving visitors a chance to win something.
Increase Conversions
Turn shoppers into buyers. Create campaigns that stir up sales. Offer a downloadable coupon that provides a discount off a purchase, free shipping or a free bonus item.
Build Store Traffic
If your goal is to drive more people into your brick-and-mortar store, then find a reason to inspire them to come in: a clinic, an appearance by a celebrity, free restringing, a free lesson or another incentive might help drive people through your door.
What Social-Media Channels Are Right For You?
SMM is changing the way you do business. If you’re not using social media as part of your overall marketing plan, you’re simply being left behind. There are many platform choices where you can post information. With special thanks to topdogsocialmedia.com, here’s a recap of the more popular channels:
Pinterest
Social site that is all about discovery. Largest opportunities include décor, babies, recipes, weddings and fashion. Users are 68 percent female and 32 percent male, and there are currently more than 40 million users.
Twitter
Micro-blogging social site that limits each post to 140 characters. Its largest penetration is in the United States, but it’s spreading slowly and steadily. 5,700 tweets happen every second from nearly 300 million active users.
Facebook
Social sharing site that has one billion users worldwide. Your largest opportunities are centered on communicating with consumers in a non-intrusive way. Users share 2.5 billion pieces of content each day.
Instagram
Social sharing site centered on pictures and, now, 15-second videos. Many brands are participating through the use of hashtags (#) and posting pictures to which consumers can relate. The most followed brand is MTV (great for music products and services), and there are more than 300 million active users.
Google +
Social network created by Google that allows brands and users to build circles. Not as many brands are active, but those that participate tend to be a good fit with a great following. Although it lags in active users, it continues to grow.
LinkedIn
Business-oriented social network site with more than 330 million members. Brands that are participating are corporate, giving potential and current associates a place to network and connect. 79 percent of users are 35 years old or older.
Key Points to Consider Prior to Launching your Campaign
What are you hoping to achieve through Social Media Marketing?
Use this question to help define the end goal. Do you want to build your e-mail list? Launch a new product or service? What, specifically, do you want to accomplish?
Who is the target audience on whom you want to make an impression?
Are you trying to reach parents of potential new students? Power users of the latest recording software? Mobile DJs interested in the latest in lighting gear? You need to determine whom you’re hanging the target on.
Where do you need to go to reach your prospects?
Where will they be hiding? In what social-media portal will prospects be found? In order to be heard and to influence action, you need to know where they’ll be.
What type of message do you want to send?
Are you offering a special deal? What type of action are you trying to have people take? What method will you use to garner the best possible result?
Whether you’re running a small, local operation or you’re heading a global, enterprise-level effort, your customers are online. They are interacting on social channels with friends, colleagues and other brands in search of information, recommendations and entertainment. If your company is not around to answer, a competitor will be. And, in doing so, your competition, quite likely, will take away the customer at hand, along with anyone else listening.