Have you been thinking about making use of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and a blog, but haven’t done it yet? You may wonder: how could a Facebook fanpage help me promote my plumbing business or my architecture business?
You’ll be surprised to find out how useful social media can be—and how many Internet users (and customer leads) are active on these social media sites.
Facebook as a Business Marketing Tool
Facebook is more popular than you might realize. Right now, there are over one million entrepreneurs and small business owners using Facebook fanpages to promote their businesses. Over 25 million pieces of content are shared through Facebook each month, and over 150 million people link to external websites through Facebook links each month. Right now, over 100 million Facebook users are accessing Facebook through a mobile device.
You can use a business Facebook fanpage for a myriad of purposes. If you’re a restaurant owner, you can share new menu items, promotions, and local news. If you’re a plumber, you entice readers to come to your website to get answers to questions like: “How is my local water quality?” or “What can I put down my garbage disposal?”
Twitter as a Business Marketing Tool
Right now, Twitter is adding around 300,000 new users every single day. Internet users conduct over 600 million searches on Twitter each day. Over a third of Twitter users access Twitter through their mobile devices, making Twitter an excellent way to tap into mobile phone user markets.
You can use Twitter to tweet special offers, promotions, news, and to entice readers to visit your website. Twitter is easy to use and very time-efficient (not to mention dirt cheap) way to market your business and services.
YouTube as a Business Marketing Tool
YouTube is incredibly popular as it offers a visual aspect to marketing. Every day, over 2 billion viewers check out videos on YouTube. It is an especially effective way to reach the younger market since over half of the regular YouTube users are younger than age 20.
You can use YouTube to add a flashier, more entertaining aspect to your marketing campaign. Because of the very nature of YouTube, videos uploaded there can be of amateur quality, meaning you can create basic videos inexpensively and still get good results.
Using a Blog as a Business Marketing Tool
Over three-quarters of Internet users regularly read blog posts. Blog posts drive organic traffic to your website (off keyword searches) and can establish you as a credible expert in your subject matter.
Business owners find they can increase traffic to their site and increase sales by posting informative, useful, and entertaining blog posts on a regular basis.
Social Media – It’s Where It’s at Today
If you’re not sure how to use social media most efficiently for your particular business, you may wish to consult with a social media expert. They can help you formulate a social media business plan and hook you up with resources for the pieces of the plan you’d rather not tackle on your own.
Many small business owners handle their social media campaigns on their own, but a good many feel it’s a good investment to outsource this to the experts. However you decide to handle this, you’ll want to make at least one form of social media a part of your marketing plan.
Guest Author:
Erinn Stam is the Managing Editor for online BSN programs. She attends Wake Technical Community College and is learning about nursing schools in ID. She lives in Durham, NC with her lovely 4-year-old daughter and exuberant husband.
