Turning Customers Into Friends Using Social Media

If you don't know what social media marketing is, your first step
should be to spend some time on Facebook and Twitter. Once you
understand what these sites are all about, you can begin the journey
to getting your business in line with them. This is going to be very
important for your business if you want to expand in the future.

Use Facebook as a way to develop relationships, not customers. If
you are only logging on to Facebook to post another ad for your
business, you are going to get disliked quickly, but if you log on and
add interesting snippets of information about your community, you will
get many likes quickly.

If you are using social media to market like Facebook or twitter you
must be very careful about any content that you post or that is posted
on your page. Because you are instantly and at ask times connected
to your customer base any minor our maitre snafu can cost sales.

If your online presence involves any kind of a blog, make sure you update your Facebook page immediately after the blog is updated.
This can draw Facebook users to your blog or website, and leaves no
lag time between your blog post and garnering attention to it. As soon
as you post a blog entry it starts aging, so getting the word out on
Facebook immediately takes advantage of the fresh and relevant
content.

To spark feedback and activity in your social media marketing, run
polls with interesting questions. Facebook has a good feature for this.
Polls often go a little viral within social media, but also serve as good
conversation starters with your subscribers and followers. It can also
yield treasure troves of statistics you can use to target your
demographics better.

To make the most of social media marketing, respond to questions
and comments in a very timely manner. You do not want to sit at your
desk refreshing your inbox 24/7, but you do want to check in multiple
times per day if possible. Anyone asking questions is either a loyal
customer you want to retain and get more business from, or an
interested prospect who might open their wallet if you give them some
personal attention.

If your social media marketing campaign involves Twitter, get the most
followers you can. The number of Twitter followers an entity has, is
now a serious measuring stick of importance in today's world.
Companies always love seeing that their Twitter feed has more
followers than their competitors and are quick to point it out to their
customers. You should too.

If your social media marketing involves a Twitter account, automate
certain kinds of content. If there are bloggers or news sources within
your niche that you trust, and whose posts are consistently
interesting, automate your account to retweet their posts. Also set up
something where your best Tweets are periodically retweeted so they
do not sink out of sight.

Having your business set up online with social media is becoming an
essential for all businesses. If you haven't done it already, this article
has shown you how you can become part of this online world. Your
business can see a lot of increase in interest and sales just by using
this one marketing trick.

Michael Diffin
[email protected]