Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Social Media Marketing Tips From The Pros

“You have to create a plan. I see many professionals and smaller businesses who haven’t looked at their objectives. Who is their target audience? What key messages are they trying to get out?”
--Stacy Cohen, Co-communications

“A great way to gain followers on Twitter is to Retweet what someone else has to say or to jump into their conversation and add your own perspective. Also ask people to retweet your links by adding the words ‘Pls RT’”
--Stacy Solomon, Internet Marketing Consultant

“If you are spending five hundred to a thousand dollars each month on marketing and take even one or two months of this and invest in setting up your social media, you can see a significant long-term gain for your business.”
--Gerald Stern, WOW Production Services

“One hundred high-quality followers easily equals one thousand so-so followers, because in the social media world you want people to constantly pass on the things you write, as well as send you material to post. Business people must avoid an overt ‘sales’ method—you’ll just turn people off and you’ll lose your following.”
--Chris Cornell, Westchester Social Media

“You should never expect social media to be completely cost-free. Someone must spend time staying on top of all those tweets, messages, Facebook updates and blog posts. Likewise, quick (if not instant) replies are necessary to maintain a reputation for responsiveness.”
--Kristen Ruby, Ruby Media Group

Whether they pay-it-forward or pay-as-they-go, more and more business owners and managers are turning to social media networks for very good reasons. “In the current economic downturn business owners must go above and beyond to promote themselves,” says Rye NY Chamber of Commerce Secretary Sally Wright. The organization received dozens of requests for a repeat of its recent social media seminar. She adds, “Social media is one great way to accomplish that.”

Dave Donelson distills the experiences of hundreds of entrepreneurs into practical advice for small business owners and managers in the Dynamic Manager's Guides, a series of how-to books about marketing and advertising, sales techniques, motivating personnel, financial management, and business strategy.

5 comments:

Staci Burruel said...

I agree with what Kirsten said. Setting up social media is not completely cost-free, but the cost can be reduced if you know what to do. It would be best to allow a social media expert to handle the optimization process to ensure that you get off to a strong start. After all, information written in the internet is done in ink. Updating your social media platforms can help you build and maintain a good relationship with your target market. Communication is key in business. The information you obtain from talking to your customers can help you develop better products/services, which in turn can help you win over more customers.

Abigayle said...

I have to agree with Stacey Cohen, “You have to create a plan”. In any business, a plan must be carefully drafted to keep everything in order. Having a well defined plan will make the business run smoothly. In social media, planning will help you to secure the necessary tools and techniques to lead you to success.

-Abigayle Soderstrom

Glenn Evans said...

I agree with all of these, but Stacy Cohen definitely got me. Ultimately, the first thing you should do before venturing into the world of marketing is to create a plan. This plan shall entail efficient marketing strategies and flexible tactics that will stand for your business.

Sage Aumick said...

Kristen from the Ruby Media Group has a point. Once you start creating an your own business' social account(s), you have to make sure that you’ll be able to keep it up to date. People will definitely rely on your account whenever they want to know something about your brand. So be sure that you spend time in answering all their inquiries. It’s important because your customers will feel that you really value them if you meet their concerns.

Jamie Viggiano said...

Chris Cornell’s tip can help online entrepreneurs get their marketing plan on the right track. Some think that social media marketing is all about numbers. Well, this is almost correct. You have to focus on gaining followers that actually LIKE your product. When you promote your product to people that are outside your niche, you’ll only have dead weight on your page which can be very costly.