Social Media Marketing has changed dramatically the way we shop, the foods we eat, the music we listen to, the clothes we wear and whom we do business with.
These days your sales depend less on your floor salesman and more on your online presence and your business and product reputation online.
We no longer reach for Golden Pages when we need some product or service. We search for a company website on Google, read product reviews on Blogs and ask for recommendations on Forums.
We don’t just tell our best friend or a colleague about our bad shopping experience, we broadcast it to the world on Facebook or Twitter.
So what is Social Media Marketing (SMM)?
Social Media Marketing involves sharing content and building relationships with your potential and existing clients via various social media channels.
It may seem easy, but there’s more to it than simply sharing links over Facebook and Twitter. Making your website or business stand out in the social media requires carefully thought out planning and using the right tools.
Types of Social Media
There are many types of social media, with more springing up as we speak. Here are the most important types:
- Blogs e.g. WordPress, TypePad or Blogger
- Microblogs/News sharing e.g. Twitter
- Social Networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, Professional Networking sites such as LinkedIn or Plaxo
- Location Based Social Networking sites e.g. Foursquare and Gowalla.
- Social Bookmarking sites e.g.Del.ici.ous, Diigo, StumbleUpon .
- Social Q & A e.g. Answers.com or Yahoo!Answers
- Video sharing sites e.g. YouTube or Vimeo
- Photo sharing sites e.g. Flickr or PhotoBucket
- Presentation sharing sites e.g. SlideShare
- Article sharing sites e.g. HubPages
- Social news sharing sites e.g. Reddit, Digg
- Forums e.g. boards.ie or bodybuilding.com
Why should you bother with Social Media Marketing (SMM)
- As of the end of February 2011, there were an estimated total of 642.5 million Facebook users worldwide.
- There are 1,858,180 Facebook users in Ireland (nearly 50% of population), 152,189,880 in the US ( 71.2 % of population) and 28,940,400 in the UK.
- Over 400 000 businesses have presence on Facebook
- The #2 largest search engine in the world is YouTube
- There are over 200,000,000 blogs online
- 34% of bloggers post opinions about products & brands
- 78% of consumers trust peer recommendations, only 14% trust advertisements
- Only 18% of traditional TV campaigns generate a positive ROI
- We no longer search for the news, the news finds us
Is Social Media Marketing a Fad?
Social Media Marketing is time consuming and a bit overwhelming for most businesses. Many small business owners shy away from social media thinking it is a passing phase, in other words, a fad.
” Social Media Marketing isn’t a fad, it’s a fundamental shift in the way we communicate. In the near future we will no longer search for products and services, they will find us via social media. The ROI of social media is that your business will still exist in 5 years. We don’t have a choice on whether we DO social media, the question is how well we DO it.”
How Social Media Marketing can benefit your business?
Gary Vaynerchuck, a video blogger and co-owner of a wine retail store, grew his family business from $4 million to $50 million using social media. He found that $15 000 spent on Direct Mail brought him only 200 new customers, $7500 spent on billboards – 300 new customers, and $0 spent on Twitter -1800 new customers. Dell sold $3 000 000 worth of computers via Twitter.
According to the research conducted by a web hosting provider Moonfruit, a $15K investment in social media brings 300% increase in traffic and 20% increase in sales. Social Media is fast becoming one of the most important sources of web traffic.
Social Media Marketing Services
Getahead Online can help your business generate leads, build your brand and connect with customers using Social Media Marketing.
Depending on your particular product/services and your target market, we can offer the following services:
- Blog design (WordPress)
- Twitter setup and Twitter Branding package
- Facebook Business Page Setup and Branding
- YouTube Channel Setup and Branding
- LinkedIn account Setup and Branding (coming soon)
- Forum setup
- Short promotional video creation
- Squidoo lens creation
- Social Media Apps (e.g Facebook promotions via coupons, competitions and special offers)
- Blog Post to FB, Google Plus and Twitter auto posting
- Ongoing Social Media Marketing that involves content sharing, relationship building, increasing fan base etc.
If you would like to market your business using Social Media Marketing , enter your name and contact details below…Or phone us, it is quicker…
