Boost Your Bottom Line With Social Media

Time:2010-01-22 20:15:09 Source:Ezinearticles Author:Lauren Hobson

If you are still not convinced that social media belongs in your marketing mix, keep reading. Social media marketing continues to gain momentum as a first-rate marketing vehicle, gaining favor over traditional marketing in many cases. For example, Pepsi will be skipping TV ads during this year's Super Bowl and instead investing the ad dollars into social media marketing. Pepsi has been advertising during the Super Bowl for 23 years; yet now believes it can reach more viewers and get better results with social media than with TV advertising during the Super Bowl! That really says a lot about the state of social media marketing today.

But beyond being highly effective, a new study from Wetpaint and The Altimeter Group now shows that social marketing can actually improve a company's bottom line. The study revealed that companies who were the most engaged in social media marketing increased their revenues by 18%, versus companies not engaged in social media marketing, who showed an average decrease in revenues of 6%.

So if social marketing is so effective that, as in the case of Pepsi's Super Bowl ads, it can replace the traditional, and has also been shown to increase revenues by double-digits, it may be time to re-think your social media strategy!

What can your small business do to take advantage of the benefits that come from social media marketing? Here are some tips to get you started:

Start with the biggies: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube.

There are so many social marketing options available today that to establish (and then maintain) a presence on all of them would be virtually impossible for most small businesses. So instead of having a large number of profiles scattered among many different sites, try to focus your efforts on the "biggies" in the space. Currently, that includes Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube. Also, all of these have business profile options available for setting up business profiles and accounts.

Take advantage of advanced features.

These "biggies" also offer various advanced features that help extend the usefulness and marketing impact of social networking for your business. For instance, Facebook offers a Custom Tab feature that gives you additional pages in your profile for custom content. LinkedIn allows you to use RSS feeds from your blog or other resources, and YouTube video links can be easily embedded into your web pages, blog, and other social media.

Integrate everything to work together.

To get the maximum benefit of social marketing, be sure to integrate your profiles to work seamlessly with each other. Your Facebook page should be able to "talk" to your web site, your Twitter "tweets" should display on your Facebook page, and your blog posts should be RSS-fed to your LinkedIn profile. This may take some outside professional expertise to help with the integration work, but it's worth it in the time you'll save in maintaining your social profiles and in the additional marketing reach your messages will have.

Maintain your branding among all your social media sites.

When setting up your social profiles, be sure to use your existing logo, corporate colors, and the "look and feel" of your existing branding and web site. It's important that you maintain consistency among all of your marketing channels to reinforce your company and your brand in all the places your customers and potential customers visit. Most social media sites allow for at least some level of customization.

Be committed to posting content regularly.

It doesn't have to take a lot of time or resources to keep up with your social media marketing, but you do have to commit to spending at least a little time on a regular basis to maintain your social presence. If you have integrated your profiles, it will be easy to post new content and have it automatically propagate to the rest of your social channels without having to enter the same content over and over on different profiles. Of course, having a dedicated social media staff would be great, but it's unrealistic for most small businesses. Instead, put together a social networking strategy that outlines which social sites you want to use, what content you will post, and the person who will be responsible for posting your content on a regular basis.

By including social media marketing in your marketing mix, your small business gets an inexpensive, effective marketing strategy that not only improves your online visibility, but can also contribute to your bottom line as well. So if you're looking for a way to boost your revenues this year, social marketing may be a good place to start.

Lauren Hobson, President of Five Sparrows, LLC, has more than 16 years of experience in small business technology writing, marketing, and web site design and development. Five Sparrows provides professional website, marketing, and social networking services to small businesses and non-profits at affordable prices, giving clients access to customized services that meet both their needs and their budgets. More at http://www.fivesparrows.com.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Lauren_Hobson

Lauren Hobson - EzineArticles Expert Author

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