With literally billions of people around the world logged onto the various social media networking sites each day – why wouldn’t you want to place your business on the front line of such a high caliber traffic source? Consumers are logging onto these social media sites; on a daily basis to rant and rave about the products and services they have used, as well as to publicly question their interest on new products and services – your products and services! While utilizing social media marketing effectively will require optimal time management skills, with free memberships, how could you go wrong?
Utilizing Facebook and Twitter to Increase Exposure
You should always start your social media marketing venture on the “main” markets such as Facebook and Twitter, as these are the most seasoned, popular and easy to use. When marketing, keep the golden rule of thumb in mind at all times – success is driven on the quality of your posts, not the quantity! Every post you publish is guaranteed to be viewed, but your goal is to have your links clicked and your target market engaged. Flooding your pages with random, irrelevant posts will not only deter your followers, but also throw your time management off balance and prolong the success of each campaign.
Knowing how to optimize each of the social networks is also vital to your campaign success. The biggest difference between Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) and Twitter is the character limit and presentation of each post. While Facebook has a much higher character count and showcases the link previews directly under each post, Twitter posts are restricted to a 140-character count and does not include a link preview. This causes some business owners to utilize Facebook for more detailed engagements and Twitter to engage the target market with more quip-like posts. However, since Twitter contains less privacy restrictions than Facebook, users have the ability to use hash tags (#) before various words in their posts. This attaches the post string into a pool of others posts containing the same hash tag. This instantly increases the exposure of each post, in turn increases your fan base, website traffic (if posting links) and potential sales conversions.
In addition to these main sites, there are several others that can help you increase exposure effectively. Sites such as Tumblr and Flickr are becoming more popular amongst certain industries as they utilize images more than text posting to attract and engage the target market. These sites are especially useful for product driven businesses which are best showcased with visuals rather than descriptions.
Social Bookmarking Leaves as Lasting Impression
In addition to social media marketing on the main networking sites, over the last few years, social media bookmarking has become just as popular and effective for increasing traffic and exposure. A social bookmarking site is essentially a database of bookmarks created and shared by users. Most of these sites are categorized, allowing users to find interesting websites easily according to their preference. While these sites are also free to use and submit to, it is highly recommended to utilize them just as frequently as you would update your social media accounts. Most marketing campaigns include social bookmarking for article marketing campaigns in addition to their website marketing efforts. Websites such as Digg, Reddit and StumbedUpon are a few bookmarking sites that can compliment your social media marketing campaigns effectively.
