Basic Tips and Tricks of Social Media Marketing

Using social media websites like Facebook and Twitter is a great way for a company, organization, or individual to advertise or market.  Not only are they high traffic areas, but they're free to use and view.  And not only are they free and pretty easy to get a hang of, but millions of people uses these websites every single day of the year.  That's a ton of potential clients or consumers at your finger tips all for free or next to free.

A lot of companies have jumped onto the social media train, but few are using it appropriately.  The first and foremost thing is for one to know their target audience and engage them on their level.  According to Google's Ad Planner, Facebook is primarily used by individuals 17 years of age or younger, while Twitter and LinkedIn users tend to be in their 40's.  Of course it can be assumed that these numbers are a bit skewed because let's face it, lying on the internet is easy.  It's still a good idea to keep these age brackets in mind and react accordingly.  Also be sure to research the current user environment and social interactions of a site before posting to it.  You wouldn't want to go on LinkedIn, a website mostly used for professional networking and resume sharing and go about your company profile using shorthand or abbreviation like "lol" and "plz" for example.

It's also a great idea to cross advertise.  For example, tweet a link to your Facebook profile, or link your Twitter on your Facebook page and always ALWAYS make sure to link to your socialmedia outlets on your website.  Once you have a decent following built up, you'll want to engage them.  You can either do the usual and expected thing like promoting new products on it, or you can get a little more creative like running a contest where users can submit pictures of themselves using your product and the winner would be featured in the next advertising campaign.

There's also a fine balance to walk when using these tools.  Too impersonal and frequent can make a campaign or account stink of spam, but too personal can cause a conflicting message pending on your companies image and branding, and too infrequently can be seen as showing disinterest for the community.  Make sure to keep all of this in mind along with your company or organizations established personality and image too.

Posted in: advertising, facebook, linkedin, marketing, social media, twitter