At a recent meeting of the Local Business Network, we had a fantastic discussion about the pros and cons of using social media – such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn – to promote our businesses. Here are some of the ideas we came up with:
Pros
- It's free.
- It's easy to manage and update.
- It's a great way to build on your network of contacts.
- You can use it to promote news or specials for your business by adding it to the cycle of updates for your website or email marketing program.
- You can get feedback on your products or services.
Cons
- You can end up spending a lot of time online and you need to balance this with your business returns.
- There are privacy issues – you have to be careful with your personal information and who you share it with. Make sure that you check your privacy settings and that you are comfortable with the level of exposure you have.
- In some cases, such as on Facebook, you can't control the comments that others leave on your page.
In the networking group, there were many who were excited by social networking and who had already created a presence. Yet there were others who felt that social networking was beyond their technical capabilities or that they didn't have the time to use it.
Overall, the consensus was that you get out of it what you put in. If you invest time in creating good content and having regular, relevant updates then social networking can be a useful tool.
Get more out of your website
The same can be said about your website – if you keep it up-to-date and relevant then it will be a useful marketing tool that can be used to your advantage. Using your website together with other social networking tools – such as Facebook, Twitter or a blog – can take your opportunities for promotion to an even greater level.
Bring it all together
So, the next time you have news or information to promote about your products and services, you can share it in a variety of ways, including:
- Website
- Email marketing
- Traditional marketing such as fliers and newsletters
- Social media.
Setting up these different types of promotion can be time consuming at first. But, once you have the basics in place, you will get into a routine of managing the publication of news and information. Make sure that, every time you have something to promote, that you do it across the different platforms and that you are monitoring the results of each.
Offer a call to action
Don't forget the power of the "call to action". If you have something of interest to offer your visitors – such as a prize, offer or free gift – this will give them a great reason to sign up for regular updates. This way you will develop a bigger list of potential customers to share your news with on a regular basis.
Talk to Ramble
If you need further information about setting up your social media pages, why not talk to us? We can offer you some advice on how to go about it and what will work for your business. We can also help you set up website and email marketing systems that work together so that updating across a range of platforms is easier.
Call us today: (03) 9585 2299
Tell us about your experiences with social media. Join the discussion on the Ramble Communications page on Facebook.
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