Friday, November 6, 2009

Using Social Sites to Market your Business

Social media sites are becoming a new popular way of advertising and promoting business. With the advancement of social sites like twitter and Facebook a new generation of savvy marketing guru’s are reinventing how entrepreneurs promote and market there products and services to reach a dedicated primed and educated customer who no longer relies on the old standard media for information. Smart businesses are tapping into to this social media phenomenon at an enormous rate and those that aren't looking at this as a viable marketing option may be putting their future business at risk.
When it comes to social marketing, imagination is key. All one really needs is a to be somewhat computer literate and have a pretty good handle on using social sites. The trick to making them work as marketing tools is to have a marketing plan which includes the who, why, and what of your marketing direction

Who do you want to market too?
Why do you want to market to them through this media?
What do want to market to this attentive market place


First you must know your target market. If you want to market to 45+ year old males who work for UPS, this is not your media. However if you want to market to the 20 to 30 something population, then this IS your media. Or better yet if you want to hit the 13 to 19 year old crowd, this is definitely your media. For this reason social marketing is becoming very successful in restaurants, clubs, the arts, music, anything college related, even clothing retailers, book stores, and specialty shops are finding a niche in this cyber web of marketing. But don’t count out the gen x and baby boomers. They are slowly coming on board to the facebook site though research shows their use of Twitter in minimal.

The marketing strategy in general is not any different then any other “ find a new customer and keep them interested in doing business with you” the difference is that technology takes this basic marketing strategy and uses all the newest tools of cyberspace to capture the customer and take them on a interesting cyber journey right into your offerings

Example 1: the rock band Foo Fighters recently invited there twitter audience to a on-line concert by simply posting a link on twitter that went out to there 31000 followers. The link led them to the bands facebook page where the band was broadcasting a live performance from a studio. The only audience were the invited fans watching on their computers. The band played several well-known songs while fans twittered the band their thoughts, comments and requests. In between songs the band would read and display the tweets from the audience making the whole experience very personal. So what’s the point you ask?
Well the band also played several new songs from there recently released CD which the crowd had never heard before and probably never would again, unless 1. They go buy the CD or 2. Attend the next concert

Ingenious no? My guess is the band sold about 20,000 CD’s with this 1-hour marketing ploy. No expensive printing. No travel, no hotel rooms, no dependence on radio. Just one on one direct, personal marketing, right to the heart of their most dedicated customers

Example 2: A fast food chain in town with 14 locations used the media in a very different way to promote their restaurants. They twittered their followers and offered them a free gift card if they followed the posted link. The link pointed them to their Facebook page, which had another link that would email them the printable gift card voucher. It also offered other discounts if they became a fan of the page. The customer could print the voucher and present it at the restaurant, which would issue the card. The restaurant reported that customers totaling 60% of their Twitter following presented a voucher, and the customers who used the card also got a coupon for their next visit. The restaurant reported the 80% of those coupons have been used so far and 30 % of the customer’s added value to those cards after receiving it. This is a huge success in bringing in customers based on the little cost associated, and the customer receives a very personal experience to boot. The restaurant was able to bring customers to their locations and also entice them to become a fan of their Facebook, which will give them even more marketing possibilities in the future.

What ever the marketing initiative, social marketing is here to stay. The sooner businesses tap into this new and fresh media frenzy, the sooner they can wreak the rewards