Five Ways To Look At Social Media
Today, if you are going to have a successful business, you need to look at Social Media. Social Media is where the people are at. It is estimated that Social Media is the fourth largest attraction on the internet. It’s even higher than looking at email! So, why are you only thinking about getting on the Social Media bandwagon? Maybe you just aren’t sure how to go about joining Social Media groups. If not, here is a run down of five different web sites for you to look at and the way you should use them for your business.
So, let’s start with the most popular Social Network on the planet. Facebook is enormous and it is growing. Last year, alone, it increased in size by 566% worldwide. If you are thinking about marketing your business on Facebook, it is important to know the audience. In this case, your audience is comprised of your “friends” and their friends. This is the type of media that you interact personally with people. It’s your neighborhood bar and your writing to keep people interested in what you have to provide with your business. It is important not to confuse your personal profile with your fan page. On your personal page, talk about what you want. Play games and discuss politics and religion if you so desire. On your fan page, talk about business. A company that has had success on Facebook is: Ben & Jerry’s with over 3.2 million fans and dozens of fan sites.
The second most popular Social Media site is LinkedIN. This site is targeted at business-to-business. This web site is a more serious place to conduct yourself. It is a business trade show compared to the other sites. Here, you will find people asking industry questions and people writing about any sort of business you can conceive. If you are looking for recommendations from others or even expanding your business, this is the place you should be. As a web designer and writer, I have picked up dozens of clients because of this networking site. It is a place to showcase your skills and to gather business contacts.
YOUTUBE
You may not consider YouTube a Social Media site, but it is. Video is one of the fastest growing segments of the internet and this is a place to show your own commercials. People are often times more visual and relate to videos more than they do text and this is the most recognizable video site. Think of YouTube as a flashing billboard for your business. Your videos should always contain your company’s name and a call to action. YouTube is not an easy place to be successful. Your video does not have to be professionally shot, but it does have to be appealing to a wide audience. Just like the song about New York, “If you can make it there, you can make it anywhere.“ A good examples of an unknown company that made millions on YouTube is: Blend-Tec with a half million followers.
It’s a phenomenon that I’ve written about on several different occasions. Twitter is similar to an instant message that you might have used on AOL or Yahoo Messenger. The difference is, you can send your instant message out to everyone who knows you and can tag words for people to find you. Think of it as a loudspeaker system for short snippets of information. What can you do with it? You can announce specials, deals, and industry news. You can comment directly to people and you can share links. All of these make Twitter one of my favorite sites.
MYSPACE
OK, sure. This site is a little past its prime, but, depending on your target audience, mySpace is still relevant. mySpace – which still boasts over 50 million users – is typically comprised of high school and college students. It is the Party Central of Social Media. That is something to consider if your clients or customers are in that age group. Since the site has dropped a bit in popularity among the majority of people in favor of Facebook, there is probably a good opportunity here to reach the people who buy from you at a considerably cheaper price tag with their advertising. Fifty million people is still fifty million people, after all…
This article is written by James Fowler and first appeared on www.myfivebest.com on September 15, 2011.
