[Social marketing is hard to ignore as it steadily gains popularity as an effective marketing tool. According to Forrester Research, 75% of Internet users participate in some form of social media, up from 56% in 2007. Now that’s the kind of fast-track mainstream adoption you can watch from the sidelines or you can choose to get in on.
Of course, we are not suggesting you dive in headfirst but rather ease into it gradually. Remember, social marketing takes time to have a positive effect, so the seeds you plant today can take up to a full year before coming to fruition. The following are just some of the strategies we implement when activating social campaigns for our clients:
1. Find out where your target is the most active on the web””Think blogs, Facebook, Linkedin, forums, Twitter, etc. Then set up a branded identity on each.
2. Be conversational””And please don’t sell. You want to be the purveyor of useful information, someone people come to for advice.
3. Connect your social media””With simple RSS feeds you can make sure that all of your content syncs up. This makes it easier for your customers to find your content.
4. Do something viral””Remember the last interesting thing somebody sent you? It didn’t cost the originator a dime, yet it paid big dividends in terms of exposure.
5. Become an influencer””Participate in forums. Identify yourself as someone from your company and say something interesting. It may sound easy, but it requires a commitment.
6. Nominate a social media person””Make it someone’s responsibility to actively participate on and monitor the web.
When properly planned and executed, social media campaigns can be a very powerful and cost-effective part of your overall marketing strategy, especially during these times of budgetary cutbacks and uncertainty.
Speaking of the next generation, we recently offered a free White Paper on the subject entitled Web 3.0. Bring it on! In case you missed it and would like to check it out, just send an email with the subject line “White Paper” to editor@gumas.com, and we’ll send you a copy with our compliments.
Until next month…
