7 things that you need to know about Social Media - Consultant Wakefield Advice

Everywhere you go, you hear the subject of Social media. Terms like blogging, twitter, Face book etc abound.

If you have not engaged in any social media activities (being one of the minority), you may feel somewhat left out or lost.
If you are in business, you may wonder whether you are missing out on this new activity, and could it bring you increased leads & sales.

In fact you may feel like I did before I entered the ‘social media’ arena, that it seems impossible to even grasp the ‘basics’, let alone decide what networks there are, and more importantly, which are best for my business.

Below are 7 basic things that may help you

1. Aspects of Social Networking

There are Free- Most, like twitter, face book & LinkedIn are free. It doesn’t cost anything to sign up!

They are for everybody – It is not just for teens and university undergraduates. A recent study on shows that 25% of social media users were in the 35-44 yr group.
http://royal.pingdom.com/2010/02/16/study-ages-of-social-network-users/

They are popular – face book has registered over 400 million

They are relevant – Social networking sites are being used for various activities, including business promotion, so that they cannot be ignored as a potential marketing tool.

2. How can Social networking help My Company?
It obviously depends on the type of business you are in. However they can be used to:

Generate qualified leads
Increase subscribers to newsletter
Generate exposure to your product/services
Improved ranking in Search Engines
Build new business partnerships
Use what your customers are saying to improve your product/services


3. Do I need to be qualified or an expert.
As with most things, we only learn though our actions. I started by opening accounts in the major networks, and accepted I might make a fool of myself. My grandchildren were rather surprised when I joined face book and asked them to be my ‘friends’.
It helps to learn the basics, but regarding use for business it may be better to talk to a consultant or company that has experience in how to apply social networking to grow your business.


4. Consider the different Channels that may be relevant to your product/services.

When a potential customer is researching about your product/service, can they find you on?

Discussion Sites ( Blogs etc)
Photo sharing site ( Flickr etc)
Video Sharing Sites (YouTube etc)
Article Sharing Sites (Digg etc)
Social/Business networking sites(Face book, etc)

5. Personal & Business Accounts

It is possible with some networking sites, including Face book, to have a personal & Business account.
It is best to choose both, but use your business account for business purposes only. The only exception tot his would be if your name is your brand!


6. How relevant is Social Networking to my Business?
Again, it depends on your business. But let us back track. Say you want to promote your company & its goods/services though the internet. How do people find you? It’s not by accident.
Most people use the search engines initially for research. They what information about a product or service. Only around 10% of people search and buy on the same day according to Google.
So you need your product/service to appear when prospective purchasers are researching. Social media could help with this.



7. It may be free but it is not cheap!

As mentioned above, most social media networks are free to join. But don’t be fooled. The one thing that is required, and can be significant, is TIME. Part of social media networking is taking time to communicate, replying to others, and commenting on other networks regarding your expertise. So choosing the correct networking and budgeting your time is vital. You may prefer to hire someone who will manage your blog writing, twittering etc but this depends on your budget.

Conclusion

If you plan to use social media to grow your business, bear in mind it can take up to 12 months to see some results. It is not a quick fix! If you want more traffic to your website (and therefore more leads/sales), Search Engine Optimization or Pay Per Click marketing will provide a more likely faster solution. Also, I believe that most social media networking should point people to a destination (your website usually). So before you invest time (& money), it is wise to consider:

a) Does my website genuinely represent my business?
b) Is it attractive, informative and easy to navigate, with a call to action?
c) Is it already found on the search engine (like Google), for my products/services. (If not, you may want to invest in this first.
d) Do I know how many people visit my website, and what their behaviour is?


And if you cannot answer YES to all of these questions, I suggest that before you enter social media, you talk to an internet marketing consultant, and define your internet strategy for your business.
Bob Snowzell works as an search engine consultant. Wakefield SEO Services offer SEO Marketing, PPC Management & Social Media Marketing