It’s clear that social media has grown dramatically over the last few years and that with more than 800 million active users, the number of Facebook users is easily more than twice the size of the complete population of the United States!
Its growth has been astronomical now, thousands of people are posting more personal and business information online than ever before. It’s happening at lightning speed with thousands of posts, tweets and uploads occurring every hour.
Recent research conducted by the Australian Interactive Media Industry Association (AIMIA) commissioned by Sensis Pty Ltd (May 2011, p. 10) indicates, that “62% of Australian Internet surfers use a variety of social media marketing sites, with many visiting every day and most at least a few times a week.” It’s no surprise that with the millions of prospective customers from across the world using these sites, every day, that so many businesses have decided to include social media marketing into their marketing mix. However it also important to get a knowledge of how these sites are increasingly being used and what’s involved in maintaining or resourcing your organization presence on these sites. Your web footprint can stick around for a long time so don’t underestimate how this may affect the perception of your brand in the market place. Spend time upfront thinking about whether social media is right for the business.
1. Seek first to comprehend – It is vital that you understand the fundamentals of how is social media marketing really works and how it’s being used. What are people and businesses doing with social media marketing? What gets them results? Premium Vacation Packages of you may be thinking, how do you do this? Perchance you could consider trying it out for yourself by setting up an individual account, then testing a number of the features, or get yourself a trusted friend to show you their account and guide you through. Alternatively there are so many resources and ‘how to’ items online about social media, that you could run a explore Google or on YouTube on a specific topic of interest and watch the video tutorials to get informed.
2. Understand your purpose – What’s your purpose is for using social media marketing? What do you desire to achieve for your business by it? It’s really essential that you identify your purpose so you can get involved in social media (or any other marketing activity for example). You need to work out why you are engaging. What do you be prepared to achieve? Do you simply want to build brand awareness, engage with your visitors or identify new sales opportunities? Be sure you be realistic about what you think you will be able to achieve.
3. If you decide to take part in social media, which sites are best for you personally? – With the plethora of social media sites available, those are best for the business? Think about where your market would socialize online, and think about the period of time and resources you would realistically be able to commit to maintaining and administering your site presence. Those are right for you? You will probably find that some are a better fit than others.
4. Quality Content – In the event that you decide that social media is right for your business, carefully consider the amount and quality of information you want to share in the online sphere. Remember it’ll probably stay there for a long time, so you need to make sure it accurate and reliable information that is valuable to your target audience. It has to be relevant, otherwise people will not read it.