Business.com - Creating a Small Business Social Media Marketing Strategy

Описание: http://www.business.com/

Key points on how to help your business make the best of social media

BIO: Cristina Caldera is a social media marketing experience at Business.com

TRANSCRIPT:

Hi, I'm Cristina Caldera, Social Media Manager at Buisiness.com, and I'm going to discuss how to create a successful social media marketing strategy tailored specifically to small businesses looking to reach a B2B audience.

It's important to create structure and a strategy around your social media efforts because if you don't, you run the risk of wasting valuable time and resources for you and your company. So, the first step in this strategy is setting goals. Start off by asking yourself, "What am I looking to accomplish with social media?" Some of the most common objectives that small businesses have include creating an online presence by generating online conversations or increasing the amount of followers on your Twitter account or "Likes" on your Facebook page. Another common goal is establishing an organization as thought leaders in a specific industry. This is typically achieved by content creation, so through company blogs or webinars or videos or podcasts. Third, and probably the most common goal small businesses have is increasing revenue by generating leads and sales. So, whatever your goal is, make sure you've
clearly defined them and make sure that your goals are realistic.

Once you've done this, you're ready to move to step two, which is focus. Because the social media landscape is so vast with thousands of resources to choose, I recommend narrowing it down to a manageable size. So, focus on four sites at first. If your business is trying to reach a B2B audience, the obvious choice is getting involved in LinkedIn. This is a great way to put your company in front of a concentrated group of business professionals all looking to share advice and gain advice from their peers. Twitter and Facebook should also be considered on this list, because although they don't specifically reach B2Bs, they are the most commonly used and most popular. Just be sure to implement best practices so your audience can find you. Lastly, I recommend getting involved with YouTube. Don't be afraid of expensive video production costs. You can create an inexpensive two-minute video about your company
or brand with a flip camera and iPhone.

Once you've narrowed down the space to a manageable size, it's time to move to step three, which is listen. It's important to read and comprehend the conversations that are going on about your brand before you engage with this community.

Now, it's time to move to step four, which is engage. This is the fun part. Start updating your status and sharing interesting information with your community, comment on other people's blogs, and get involved with online Q and A. Remember that social media's about two-side conversations and not one-sided. So, engage your community by asking them a lot of questions or sharing interesting, meaningful information with them.

Finally, step five: measure and evaluate. Make sure you define the specific tools that you're going to use and the specific method of measurement that you're going to use to gauge your online performance.
My name is Cristina Caldera, Social Media Manager at Business.com, and I've just given you five steps to create a successful social media marketing strategy for your small business. Here's a recap.