According to a survey by Forrester.com, even though 92% of those polled agree that social media has “fundamentally changed how consumers engage with brands,” only 49% of marketers have “fully integrated” social media into their marketing strategy. Have you included social media in your marketing plan?
Here are four tips for successfully including social media in your marketing plan:
Choose Your Platform Wisely
There are so many social media sites. Choose yours wisely. We have discussed various popular sites in many of our blog posts and recently touched upon some smaller social media sites. The big sites for many businesses are Facebook and Twitter.
Other possible sites are YouTube, Pinterest, Tumblr or Google+ (among others), depending upon your customer base. Don’t waste time on all of
these sites, however. Choose one at a time and test the waters slowly.
Utilize E-mail Newsletters
It is essential to include links to your website, Facebook fan page, Twitter profile and other social media pages in your newsletter. You can also highlight upcoming specials and events.
Newsletters are great because e-mails can be saved and read when your customer has a few minutes. Often posts on social media sites can get lost in a busy news feed, so reiterating certain posts in a newsletter is important.
Create Events on Facebook
Do you have an open house or other special event coming up? Create an event on Facebook! It is a fast, easy and FREE way to invite your fans to your store (make sure you include the Facebook event link in your newsletter).
You can store photos, websites, or other information important for the event all in one location. You can also encourage fans to invite their friends (perhaps you can offer a discount or special for those guests who arrive first). Use these tips for fundraising events.
Content is Key
Whether we are talking about your website, your social media profiles or your newsletter, content is key. If you are not posting interesting and engaging information, your customers are not going to read your posts. Remember to engage your customer in a conversation rather than selling to them. Your content should add value for your audience, and should not overtly sell anything, which makes people want to share it with their network as well. There is still a disconnect between brands and consumers.
Keep in mind that building your brand using social media is a process. Have you officially implemented social media into your marketing plan? Tell us about it here!
