Social Media Tips You Can Learn From Big Businesses

You may be thinking that’s all very well for multinational companies chasing a global audience and that in order to keep customers interested you have to maintain and regularly update your Facebook page, write daily tweets or blogs and upload images. If you operate a small or medium sized enterprise you probably don’t have the staff required, which runs the risk of customers drifting away, making the entire exercise a waste of time and money. The secret is to allocate a specific period each day to updating content and to stick rigidly to it.

Content

Content is the lifeblood of online marketing – stop updating it and your website or social media pages will wither and die. Visitors expect to see new content almost every time they log-on, so be sure to add online specific discounts, special offers, details of upcoming new products or services and news related to your company as frequently as possible. It is also a good idea to run competitions, offer returning customers exclusive deals, carry out surveys and request feedback on how your company is performing. Write content about how customers are making use of your products or services, and ask them to submit any tips they may have, perhaps offering a prize for the month’s best suggestion.

Facebook, Twitter and Flickr – what’s the difference?

A Facebook page allows you get up close and personal with your customers and them with you. Consider using it for one-off marketing promos related to major sporting events or something with a seasonal theme. For example, Coca Cola ran a “silly-Olympics” contest during the Sochi Winter Olympics. Games included Coke Curling and Ice Cube Ski Jump. Followers sent in video clips, with the winner receiving a $100 gift card.

Twitter is best used to announce new products and services and issue news bulletins. It is also the ideal way for leading business people to let their company’s customers get to know them at a more personal level.

Flickr is slightly different to other social media sites in that it specializes in images. Therefore, use it to post photos relating to your products or services and ask customers to send images of your products being used.

With a little imagination and original thinking, any company, whatever its size, can benefit from maintaining a presence on social media sites. There is no getting away from it, social media is one of the most efficient and economical ways of reaching a truly staggering number of potential customers yet devised.