|
Reaching Target Audiences Using Social Media sites, you can easily reach your target audiences by: 1. Creating free pages/profiles on one or several of the social media sites and then building relationships with your visitors 2. Boosting your Search Engine positioning by including links back to your website (for both traffic and link popularity) 3. Advertising on social networks 4. Networking with complementary businesses LATimes.com reported that in May 2008 Facebook had 123.9 million unique visitors and 50.6 billion page views worldwide, according to research firm ComScore. MySpace had 114.6 million unique visitors and 44.5 billion page views. In order to be successful on social media sites, you need to find a network at which your target audience 'hangs out'. For example, MySpace attracts a younger crowd with less money, whilst Facebook's population is older with higher income. You then need to: 1. Engage your audience by providing useful information (not sales pitch) 2. Build up your following by being interesting, funny, entertaining or insightful 3. Be real and show your personality 4. Gain trust and build relationships When a business has a profile that people recognise on sites such as Digg or Wikipedia, they have a significant ability to influence discussion, create content and push visibility for links. The ultimate goal of this visibility is to have the power to influence - once a business has a voice, marketing becomes a soft sell rather than hard sell. To get the most out of social media marketing Pandemiclabs.com says: Don't try to preach, LISTEN Don't try to interrupt, CONTRIBUTE Don't try to control, ENGAGE Social media marketing can be extremely powerful whether you have a small or large business. There are many guides and ebooks available on the internet for you to learn from. Simply search for "social marketing" or "social media marketing" in your favourite search engine. ------------------------------ Ivana Katz of Websites 4 Small Business makes it easy for you to get your business on the internet. If you're looking for a professional and affordable website designer, visit http://www.web4business.com.au and download a free website plan.
|