The growth of social media has redefined business scenes, more so when it comes to achieving business publicity. Business owners are currently promoting their businesses online for relatively little capital investments. Social media has greatly evolved from being a socialization site to become a strong marketing tool which when well harnessed, can lead to increased sells. Coordinating a well-planned social media approach can make a brand. It doesn’t matter if your business is new or old, established or small, social media has numerous advantages for your business. Today, there are so many available options for social media marketing which includes Facebook, Google+, twitter and LinkedIn among many others. You just need to identify the most suitable option. Each of them allows you to share important information about your business as well as showcasing about your business specializations.

Steps of using social media for business

1. Establishing the groundwork
Marketing is always result oriented, which is why just like for any other marketing campaign you have to decide on what you are marketing as well as identifying your target audience. Internet gives you the ability to reach a global target market. That is why keeping yourself focused on the target audience enables you to build a strong network of followers who eventually ends up becoming your friends and hence customers. The main objective at this stage is to establish relationship before you start selling. This is a gradual process and it is not advisable to start selling straight away. Otherwise you will scare the potential customers away.
2. pulling followers
The success of social media marketing is based on the number of followers one has. You can achieve this through “connecting,” and or “friending”. Sometimes you can comment on other people’s posts. Whichever method you opt for, building a network of followers is not difficult.
3. Developing recognition
When you have just signed up in any social media site, no one knows you and the reception may be cold when you start selling immediately. First, you should build recognition by engaging in various ways which provides valuable information to your followers. Like their comments, reply to their question or re-tweet. Keep an active interaction as a way of building the sense of belonging or community. Now you can use your site to target potential customers after an established network. Customize the site-add pictures, link to YouTube videos and twitter feeds. Attract as more followers as you can while at the same time you maintain a two-way communication within the site.
4. Keep track of your sites
Finally you should keep track of your social media sites. If you are having accounts in multiple social networking sites, it is most likely that you will be overwhelmed by managing all those accounts. And as a result you lose your followers. Luckily, you can get help from social media management sites like Ping.fm or HootSuite. These sites allows you to send identical messages with single command. In some cases where you may be required to tweet on regular basis, you can schedule them ahead. But however, you should not misuse this service as it can turn off your followers at the moment they realize that they are getting automated messages.
The most significant thing about social media is that it gives you the opportunity to engage customers in a more effective way. It allows you to get a bit personal with your clients or customers thus building some trust. You can rely on social media for feedbacks, reviews, comments and even complains. By addressing the concerns of your customers through social media, you makes them satisfied which pulls traffic to your site. How effective are you using social media for business?

By Victor Martinez B.