This isn’t a standard blog post, but a course outline of our upcoming social media bootcamp that we are launching in October 2012. Please feel free to contact us at the numbers or emails below for more details with regards to venues and dates near you.
Course Pre-requisites
Assignment A: Identify your company or organisation’s target market / group and build a sociogram to represent Social relations, Assignment B: Create a Facebook Page and/or Group for your company or organisation and attempt to reach the target market identified in Assignment A Assignment C: Create a Linked-in profile for yourself and your for your company or organisation and attempt to reach the target market identified in Assignment A Assignment D: Create a Pinterest profile for yourself and a board for your company or organisation and attempt to reach the target market identified in Assignment A Assignment E: Create a blog your for your company or organisation and attempt to reach the target market identified in Assignment A Assignment F: Time to link it all together. |
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For more information on this and other courses feel free to contact us today!
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Tag Archives: social media
Why is social media one of the most important marketing tools?
If you are in business, then you are marketing your business. All business owners are (or should be) searching for the best or most important ways to market themselves, their products or their services. And of course, cost is always a factor. We understand that we have to spend money to make money, but we want to save money in the process.
I’ve been involved in social media marketing since before the concept was officially known as social media marketing. And this article is just my opinion on the matter – I would love to hear what you think.
Now, let’s get to the point. Why is social media one of the most important marketing tools?
Social media gives you a more direct path of contact between you and your market. Having a strong social network allows you to communicate effectively with existing and potential users. More “traditional” marketing tools allows for pretty much one-way communication, but with social media you can directly interact with your client base. One of the most important aspects of using social media as a marketing platform is the fact that you are able to access a massive market that would otherwise be inaccessible through traditional media (unless equally insane amounts of money are spent). Social media makes connecting with customers easy.
Now, even today, I am exasperated to hear clients say: “But I don’t use facebook (or twitter or google+ or….). I cannot see how it can be of value to my business to have a social media presence.” And my answer is: If you aren’t using social media yet, you’re missing out on a vast, untapped group of potential customers. These days, almost everyone is plugged in and connected online – Facebook has more than 900 million active users and Twitter has almost 300 million. Is this really a user base that you can afford to disregard?
What can social media do for your company?
Firstly, by actively using social media outlets such as Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Youtube, Pinterest, etc you can raise awareness of your company to a very large community. Just like placing a newspaper, radio or television advertisement, social media is an easy way to get your company name in front of peoples eyes.
Secondly, social networking connects your with a large chunk of active online users and can generate leads of all kinds for most businesses. You can tie awareness in with promotions and competitions, and run a very effective online campaign which can only benefit your business.
Once you’ve established your network, it doesn’t stay there. You constantly add new people, and you build relationships with your existing followers. Once you’ve established a connection or formed a relationship it is crucial that you maintain the correct impression. Relationships leads to sales.
Social media also allows you to improve your customers service. Because of direct communication, social media allows you to interact with potentially disgruntled customers and sort out any problems/issues that may exist. Social media also allows your happy customers to publicly share how satisfied they are doing business with you. This gives a whole new meaning to the concept “Word of Mouth”.
There are amazing tracking/monitoring tools available which allows you to access a valuable range of data about how people found you, who they are, how they came to view your website/social page, etc. With this info, you can work out the most effective ways to increase your social media network, adjust your campaign and capture your market.
In short, social media is a whole different way of looking at promoting your business. And if you look at how some of the larger brands embrace their ongoing social media campaigns, it can definately work for your business too.
What is social media marketing?
Day after day I hear the same questions from clients: What is social media marketing? Is it important for us to know anything about this? Will it impact my business?
The answer to the last two questions are easy. YES. Yes, it is important to know as much as you can about using social media marketing tools for the benefit of your business. And yes, it will impact your business. Whether you know about it or don’t know about it, or use it or don’t use it, or believe in it, or don’t believe in it – this has no relevance. Social media marketing can in a way be compared to the law of gravity. If you jump off the top of a building, you will fall. Your belief system with regards to the law of gravity will make no difference to the consequences.
IF YOU’RE LIKE A LOT OF PEOPLE, YOU PROBABLY HAVE SOME QUESTIONS ABOUT SOCIAL MEDIA. YOU MAY BE ASKING WHETHER SOCIAL MEDIA IS OVERHYPED, WHETHER SOMETHING ELSE WILL REPLACE IT, OR WHETHER IT’S JUST A BIG, FAT WASTE OF TIME.
Now the first question is the real challenge. What is social media marketing?It is almost easier to answer this with what social media isn’t. Some people will tell you that social media is a “here today, gone tomorrow” fad, but those are the same people who are waiting for the eight-track tape deck to come back.
No, social media isn’t a flash in the pan. In fact, it’ll just keep evolving into something better, which is exactly what happened when personal computers (PCs) first came on the scene. The evolution of the personal computer from a simple word processor to a complex web of interconnected minicomputers is similar to the evolution of social media from simple networks to the Web 3.0 technology it’s becoming today. Both technologies continue to morph and evolve. And both technologies are here to stay.
Social media marketing isn’t traditional marketing. You can forget about the days of big advertising agencies thinking up creative one-way communication campaigns, or just throwing large media budgets at developing adverts for magazines, newspapers, radio, etc. Social media marketing is way more complex and fluid than traditional marketing – and more importantly, it requires an entirely new mindset.
Social Media marketing isn’t just for young people. The fastest-growing segment on facebook is women older than age 55! And the largest demographic on twitter is the 35-39 age group. So, yes, change that mindset. Social media isn’t just for young people – it is for anybody who is interested in using new technologies to grow their sales and revenue.
Social Media marketing isn’t a Youtube video. Just because you’ve uploaded a youtube video doesn’t mean your company has now run a social media campaign. Social media is about communicating across a wide variety of channels for a sustained period of time. It is about really managing that facebook fan page, linking it to your blog and youtube channel, and maintaining your completed Linkedin company profile. It is about updating Pinterest, linked to you facebook account, and making sure that your information is fresh, readable, watchable and of interset to your consumer.
A social media campaign is similar to a marriage. You can’t expect to have a good marriage if your primary means of communication is a single conversation for ten minutes every morning.
Social media isn’t always online. Don’t forget that a great deal of social media marketing happens offline – after people have turned off their computers/smart phones, etc. Your online audience continues to communicate with each other off-line, and this also impacts your business.
Social media marketing isn’t something that cannot be measured. Like any marketing, social media marketing can definately be measured. The great news, of course, is once you take the time to measure your social media marketing, you might discover that it is a significant source of products. Measure your social media marketing, track your ROI (return on investment). If you track your ROI, you can increae profits. And that should be a great thing!
The social media landscape is pitted with obstacles and potholes for those who venture into it without a map. For advice on navigating the landscape, call Jolindy Dreyer on 082 780 9209.
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