Social Media Marketing

Social Media Marketing has come of age! Everyone seems to have a presence – just check your favorite websites. Or your personal social media accounts, where surely there are people promoting their home based businesses. Tapping into the power of internet advertising, where most people spend hours upon hours of their time daily, seems like a no-brainer answer to building your business. Right?

Wrong.

Yes, Social Media Marketing has come a long way. Most anyone designing a new website will request that social media be included in the scope of the site. But just because it is included does not mean the phrase “if you build it, they will come” necessarily applies.

It is precisely because Social Media Marketing has become so popular that utilizing it successfully has become more difficult. Because everyone seems to have a presence, the social media landscape has become cluttered and busy, making it increasingly difficult to cut through the noise and get one’s message heard.

So how does one overcome the noise? There are those who think the answer is to essentially “talk louder,” splashing tweets and blog posts fast and furiously across any and all social media venues. Perhaps this will in fact get their brand noticed, but what sort of message is it sending? Instead of creating a positive impression, their presence becomes an annoyance, like that person we all know who never knows when to edit what comes out of their mouth. This sort of online representation is likely to do more harm than good to one’s business reputation. So remember, quantity does not equal quality.

Unfortunately, the answer for some others is guerrilla marketing by circumventing the system. Social media venues – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. – all have policies and guidelines that businesses are required to follow in order to advertise on their site. These unanimously require ads receive prior approval before being posted on the site. However, unscrupulous guerrilla marketers ignore these rules, essentially using social sites as a resource for spamming. In general, these scams are eventually discovered and banned. The result? Possible short-term benefit, definite long-term cost.

So what is the answer to breaking through the noise? Quite simply, the answer is creating interesting and consistent content that inspires discussion by followers. Rather than trying to directly create sales, communicate a thought provoking, relevant message which starts a conversation. This creates the benefit of instant feedback on public impressions of you and your competitors – in other words, market research that can be used to improve strategic business decisions.

One last note of caution: Do not expect overnight success with Social Media Marketing. Developing a significant online following is an organic process that requires creativity, persistence and patience. Done properly, however, it can provide a relatively inexpensive, real-time resource for discovering what your customers really want!