CAN YOU CARRY OUT YOUR OWN SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING ACTIVITIES?

Whether you have a small business or a large company, the question most asked nowadays is if you or your staff can carry out your own social media marketing activities or do you need to hire a consultant.

The answer is largely dependent on what you want to get out of social media marketing and what you can put into it, in terms of time and money.

As anything else, the more time and attention you devote to something, the greater the chances of it growing and developing. You know your product or service more than anyone else but can you devote a lot of time to digital marketing activities?  How much time? I would say you should be able to devote at least 1-2 quality hours daily. This means time devoted to research (staying informed of what is new in your sector, product but also in terms of viral marketing), writing valuable content, contributing to forums or groups and associations and answering questions. It is not easy nor is it fast. It requires hard work and consistency. It requires putting together a strategy with goals, implementing your strategy, measuring what you are doing  and then tweaking and retweaking until you are getting the results you want.
Without a doubt, if you do decide to hire a consultant or agency, you will still have a major role especially because you know your product more than anyone else. You will be working with your consultant and giving him/her the input he/she needs to carry through.  Make sure that the consultant is not just offering you a list of things to be done.  Every product and service is different and the consultant has to understand this. Most importantly, ensure  that the consultant is doing the research to know who your audience is and where your audience is. Good luck.

Understanding Your Online Audience

Your audience online is changing? Are you? Do you really know who your target market is and more importantly, do you know what it wants? Often times we spend and waste time "talking" to an audience that is not our potential consumer. Have you thought about how many of your Facebook fans or followers would actually be interested in your product or service? For example if your content or wall posts on Facebook is geared toward sales in sporting equipment and most of your Facebook followers or friends are elderly people who rarely get out to ski, you are definitely not going to get the results you are looking for. Another example is you own an expensive wellness spa but your followers are all college students that have little to no disposable income. Perhaps you are the CEO of a trendy swim trunk company and your followers are friends that purchase maybe one pair of swim trunks every year. You need to do some reaching out to find an audience that really "fits" your product. You need to find out who your evangelists are and you need to cater to them.

What forums do you actively participate in? Are you offering interesting and valuable information in these forums or are you just trying to make a fast sell? The same holds true for online associations, groups and clubs. You need to find the people that are truly interested in the same product or service you provide.

Understanding your audience takes a lot of research and does not happen overnight. The payoff however is great. The engagement between you and your audience will be a natural consequence and that engagement will lead to future sales.

Social Media Marketing - Finding Your Audience

The first step in social media marketing is identifying your product or service. If you have done your homework and a business plan, you should already have a clear definition of what you are selling, whether it be legal services, shoe repairs, leather handbags or cooking classes. If you cannot put in simple words what your business is, then you need to go back and work on your business plan. This is key to continuing.

The next step and all so equally important is defining who your audience, consumer, potential customer is. It sounds like a clichè but you really have to think outside the box and research this point fully. For instance, you may have an eyeglass store in a small town and think your potential customer is the average person who needs eye glasses. Well this may not be the case. In fact if you do your research, you will find out that when people get their prescriptions filled by eye doctors, they usually ask the eye doctor to recommend where to buy the glasses. So in this case your leads are coming from eye doctors and not the average person who walks into your store.

Another example could be a cooking school who wants to promote its gourmet cooking classes for children. This cooking school's audience is not the children but their parents and not just any parents but parents from a specific income level that can afford these type of classes. One would waste resources of time and money trying to engage all children or all parents in this instance. A better step would be to find through blogs and forums for instance parents who enroll their children in other classes (sports, music, dance, etc) in your area.

Why is it so important to know exactly who your audience is? If you don't know exactly who it is, you will not be able to locate the audience in social media communities. The average Joe does not "hang out" in the same social media communities as Dr.X, the eye doctor.Once you know who these people are and where they are, you can create content that is specific to that target audience.

Writing Quality Social Media Content For Your Business

One of the most asked questions is "how do I write quality social media content for my business?" Most of you already possess the quality content. It is just a matter of putting down in words. You know your product or service better than anyone. You know your clients better than anyone and their needs. You are probably thinking, "yeah but I don't want to give away all my trade secrets." You don't have to.

Here are some examples of what I am talking about:
A tailor explaining why hems of pants should only touch the shoe and not drag on top of the shoe is not giving away all his trade secrets but telling his followers or potential fans that he is an expert in his field and is offering this free advice.

A nutritionist who posts regularly recipes for healthy meals is not giving away all her trade secrets but showing she cares while showing she is an expert in her field.

A famous fashion designer asking his loyal followers what new trends in colors and styles they would like to see or showing how his staff works together, is not giving away trade secrets but opening its once closed doors to its adoring public.

A photographer explaining the best angles and lighting to use to shoot photos is not giving away all his trade secrets but instead giving away free suggestions that opens doors to conversations and engagement with his potential audience.