5 Easy Tips for Social Media Marketing

by | Oct 12, 2011

Facebook has transformed into nothing short of a beast when it comes to social media marketing.  Anyone who has seen “The Socialsocial media marketing Network” knows the roots of the social media giant.  It didn’t take long for the social network to grow, and once the masses joined it wasn’t long until savvy marketers knew what they had – social media was the perfect channel for marketing online.  Why?

Because you go where your customers are and Facebook is pushing 750 million members.

With that many potential customers and the relatively low cost of engagement in social media, you would expect a lot of businesses to succeed but unfortunately there are more that falter than those who succeed.

There’s an art to communicating with an audience on facebook.  The main thing to consider is that with social media marketing, the atmosphere is all about sharing.  It’s certainly not about selling.  If you try to sell in your social media marketing it’s like pushing sales in the living room of a friend.  Rest assured that as a business who just captured a “like”, you don’t have the credibility to do that yet unless you’re a massive global brand – and even then you’re pushing it.

If you want a Facebook presence for social media marketing that gets results then consider these tips:

Social Media Marketing Tip #1. Make Friends not Customers

Where possible you should want the kind of deep relationship with your customers that friends have – where they let each other borrow money, cars and underwear.  People develop positive feelings for other people, they don’t fall in love with brand pages.    When you’re promoting through social media marketing, write about items that go beyond business interest.  A good video doesn’t make you think “God I want to buy that.”  It makes you feel like you’re in the loop as it reinforces a brand identity and entertains or informs.

Social Media Marketing Tip #2. Limit Your Posting

The last thing you want to do is overwhelm people who follow your brand.  Keep your posts to about three times per day and no more than that.  If you over-post then you’ll alienate yourself in the news feeds.  Turn off the funk and post during peak traffic times.  That’s 7am, 5pm and 10pm for your target audience.

Social Media Marketing Tip #3. Don’t Be Silly for the Sake of Being Silly

If you try to poll your followers for their favorite movie, or their fondest high school memories then you’re wasting your time as well as theirs.  Most people won’t respond.  Think about posting things that are worth sharing.  Ask yourself if someone else were to post it, would you find it interesting?

Social Media Marketing Tip #4. Quit Shoving

It’s no surprise that people follow brands in social media because they’re looking for perks.  That’s all passive though, as they’re also digging into your info and news feeds to see what’s changed.  Don’t cram sales down their throats.  If you’re going to offer deals and incentives them keep them low-key.  If they’re major events or promotions then make it fun and interesting.

Social Media Marketing Tip #5. Be Interesting

This is one of the hard parts for a lot of business owners and employees assigned to social media marketing – it’s not easy being interesting.  It’s also not easy being funny, exciting or otherwise engagement when there’s a clock ticking over your head.  Instead of trying to wing it, take the time to plan out your content where you can so that you have quality, interesting filler you can use around your more casual response-based posts to trending events.  This lets you set yourself up for some automated posting while maintain engagement that keeps you looking human.

Need more tips for social media marketing?  Don’t we all!  If you’re trying to get your foot (leg, hip, body, torso – everything) involved in social media but you’re stalled then give us a shout at Tulsa internet marketing.  We would love to work with you to help you establish a strong, entertaining and engagement presence in Facebook with strategic social media marketing.