The big questions I hear out there is how do I use social media to market my business? How much time should I spend and where should I be? The answer: that depends. It depends on your type of business, on how you communicate now, on your marketing plan and what you hope to achieve with social networking.
For example, a business to business professional may find Linkedin very helpful in connecting with other professionals and prospective clients whereas a business to consumer small business may find it more valuable to do some targeted ads on Facebook.
The first step in social networking is to research what your associates,clients and prospects are doing. If you find most of them are tweeting then that may be a tactic you use for your social media marketing. If you find they aren't even on Facebook yet, it may not be your best form of marketing at all. You have to know what they are doing before you can even plan your strategy.
Many business leaders are so busy doing business that they don't have time to market themselves. And yet they know marketing and having a plan for marketing is one of the most important things they can do in today's business world. It helps to focus and plan the roadmap for success. Therefore, the second step is to plan a strategy for social media marketing. What you will do, when, and how much time will you give it.
The third step is to integrate that strategy into your current marketing plan. How will it fit with your current programs? For example, if you have a seminar for all clients and prospects and you have been sending an email to invite them, you might want to also put out an invitation on Linkedin with all of the details. Or set up a Meet-up site for that seminar. There are so many options for integrating social media.
With over 75 million Linkedin members and more than 500 million active Facebook users alone you cannot afford to miss out on this valuable marketing strategy.
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