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Thursday 11 August 2011

How Helpful are Social Networks?



Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and now Google+. How helpful these social networks really are for businesses? How to take advantage of these social networks? How to develop an integrated social media marketing strategy? How can you make it useful? Can we generate quality traffic to website and sales from these? The answer is YES and they can be really helpful. Here is the how.


What Should You Know/Keep in Mind?
  1. People won’t come knocking on the door to join.
  1. Your goal is to converse, not to send the people running.
  1. Most of your friends/followers/connections/groups are passive. Even though they might have liked your updates they wouldn’t Like/Retweet/Share/+1 it.
What Should You Do/Have?
  1. Secure best available/most suitable social URL for the organization.
  1. Develop / design / modify / refine the business page.
  1. Create profile and optimize it.
  1. Integrate suitable apps and create if necessary.
  1. Create better landing pages.
  1. Create Facebook Badge and use wisely.
  1. Use detailed info about the products/services.
  1. Use real photographs and use keywords in descriptions.
  1. Integrate Youtube videos with the biz page.
  1. How-to tutorials about products and its maintenance.
  1. Links to online reviews and comparisons.
  1. Add industry news, articles and events.
  1. Generation of discount coupon codes available only for social media fans.
  1. A tab for job openings.
  1. Syndicate your blog with the profile.
  1. Have Never-before-seen photos and videos.
  1. Integrate contests and polls.
  1. A page for Customer success stories.
  1. A page for office Locations and Directions.
  1. Invitation to sign up for newsletter.
  1. Network with interested groups.
  1. Find people by company and designation.
  1. Try to get in touch with the decision makers and heavyweights.
  1. Invite key industry experts to join and engage.
  1. Invite coworkers, past colleagues, and customers to join and start discussions.
  1. Invite the folks in your email list.
  1. Offer an incentive to join.
  1. Run Ad campaigns.
  1. Make the members aware/remind you are interested in them.
  1. Make special announcements on the social page before you do elsewhere.
  1. Flaunt social buttons on the website.
  1. Have a monthly draw just for fans.
  1. Ask for recommendations.
  1. Cross-market to related groups on different social networks.
  1. Integrate Social media to all of your marketing and branding efforts.
  1. Have genuine communications and maintain a friendly tone.
  1. Maintain a ratio between entertaining, engaging, educating and promotional messages.
  1. Update status messages periodically without grammar and spelling mistakes.
  1. Send updates targeting geographically and age wise.
  1. Respond to comments.
  2. Take a note of complaints, if any, and inform the concerned.
Results Expected
  1. Personal and better relationships.
  1. User generated content.
  1. Blended search results.
  1. More visits to website.
  1. Increased customer loyalty and retention.
  1. Enhanced brand awareness and recall.

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