Social Media: Marketing Considerations for Small Business

It’s clear that social media marketing has grown dramatically during the last few years and that with an increase of than 800 million active users, the number of Facebook users is easily more than twice the size of the entire population of america!

Its growth has been astronomical and today, millions of people are posting more personal and business information online than previously. It’s happening at lightning speed with thousands of posts, tweets and uploads occurring every hour.

Luxury Travel Experiences conducted by the Australian Interactive Media Industry Association (AIMIA) commissioned by Sensis Pty Ltd (May 2011, p. 10) indicates, that “62% of Australian Internet surfers use a variety of social media marketing sites, with many visiting each day and most at least several times a week.” It’s no real surprise that with the an incredible number of prospective customers from worldwide using these sites, each day, that so many businesses have decided to include social media marketing into their marketing mix. However it also important to get an understanding of how these sites are being used and what’s involved in maintaining or resourcing your organization presence on these sites. Your web footprint can stick around for years so don’t underestimate how this may affect the perception of one’s brand on the market place. Spend time upfront thinking about whether social media is right for your business.

1. Seek first to understand – It is very important that you understand the basics of how is social media marketing actually works and how it’s being used. What are people and businesses doing with social media? What gets them results? Some of you may be thinking, how do you do this? Perchance you could consider trying it out on your own by setting up a personal account, then testing a number of the features, or get yourself a trusted friend showing you their account and guide you through. Alternatively there are so many resources and ‘how to’ items online about social media, you could run a search on Google or on YouTube on a particular topic of interest watching the video tutorials to obtain informed.

2. Understand your purpose – What is your purpose is for using social media? What do you desire to achieve for your business by it? It’s really important that you identify your purpose for getting involved in social media (or any other marketing activity for that matter). You need to work out why you are engaging. What do you be prepared to achieve? Do you simply desire to build brand awareness, engage with your customers or identify new sales opportunities? Remember to be realistic about what you think you will be able to achieve.

3. If you decide to engage in social media, which sites are best for you personally? – With the plethora of social media marketing sites available, which ones are best for your business? Think about where your target audience would socialize online, and take into account the amount of time and resources you would realistically be able to commit to maintaining and administering your site presence. Those are right for you? You will probably find that some are a better fit than others.

4. Quality Content – In the event that you decide that social media is right for your business, carefully think about the amount and quality of information you would like to share in the online sphere. Remember it will probably stay there for a long time, so you need to make sure it accurate and reliable information that is valuable to your market. It must be relevant, otherwise people won’t read it.