Social Media Marketing...Is it for You?

Internet Marketing is only in it's infancy. So it would be a wise idea for you as a small business owner or entrepreneur to learn as much as you can about Online Marketing techniques that help you get a higher return on your investment. Even though there are an abundant amount of Internet Marketing techniques, I would like to focus on Social Network/Media Marketing.

What is Social Media?

Simply put, Social Media is a place where friends and co-workers , who share common interests connect and interact with each other on a daily to weekly basis via internet. If you ever heard of myspace.com, facebook.com or twitter.com, then you know what Social Media is all about.

Why is Social Media important to small businesses?

Using the power of Social Networking is a great marketing tool for your business. The efforts of Social Media is not to generate revenue immediately, but to build relationships. As the old adage goes: people buy from people whom they know and trust. So your primary goal is to interact with your target market and find out what they like and dislike. By knowing what your clients want, you can shift your business structure to meet the demands of the most important people that contribute to the livelihood of your business.

Finding where you fit in the Social Media Mix.

Not every business belongs on Social Media sites, and some business owners can care less who is updating what they ate 1.00pm. But, if you choose to be in the interactive social loop, it is wise not to position yourself as a business. Instead just be your regular self, of course on your profile, you can list that you own a business. But , interact with your " friends" or " followers", as if you were interacting with your regular colleagues and friends. After all, Social Media is a site where friends, families and co-workers interact with each other, and tell each other about their happy and bad times. So if you own a business you can see the feedback that you are getting from your customers, whether it be positive or negative. This way you can position your company to cater to your customers needs, just by listening to them, and interacting with them on a daily basis with the power of Social Media.

A Social Media marketing strategy can be quite time consuming, so it is best if you try no more than 2 Social Networking sites at atime. And like any other marketing strategy keep what is working, and toss what isn't.