The social marketing revolutions is upon us and web portals like LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace and Twitter will dominate how we communicate, how we prospect and how we market to our customers in the near future.
For years small business has invested billions of dollars in one-way marketing to “talk at” potential customers through print, mail, television, radio and on the internet. The challenge is that consumer expectations are rapidly changing. To effectively market to prospects and customers you need to interact and communicate with them, not just “talk at them”. Social Marketing enables you to establish a new level in communication.
I am not saying that marketing mediums like print, mail, radio and television are not effective tools. What I am saying is that a small business needs to re-think its philosophy to utilize these tools as part of an effective marketing strategy that establishes an interactive dialogue with prospects and customers utilizing the internet and develop a social marketing strategy as part of it.
Four Web 2.0 Marketing Fundamentals
Being one dimensional in your marketing efforts is like throwing money away for most small businesses. Consumers today are becoming more and more unresponsive to traditional marketing strategies that only talk at them. You need to:
- Get their ATTENTION as step one of any marketing campaign. That can be print, mail, email, radio, television or web advertising.
- You need to CAPTURE their contact information. Do you go fishing without a hook and hope that the fish will jump in the boat?
- You must get their PERMISSION to communicate with them. This shows respect for them and weeds out the tire kickers.
- Establish a regular and two-way DIALOGUE with your target prospect or customer. Become a regular and reliable resource.
It is here that an effective website, interactive blog and social marketing strategy will separate you from the sphere of one dimensional marketing and enable you to create a vortex of activity and energy for you and your business. In this post on want to discuss the social marketing opportunity and how you can take advantage of it as part of any small business marketing strategy.
New Social Revolution is Changing How We Communicate
There are four distinct components that make up the marketing sphere of any successful internet presence. They are:
- Content
- Search
- Social
- Communication
The social component is fast becoming a tremendous resource in the development of an effective small business marketing campaign. Social marketing allows you to communicate and interact with contacts, prospects and customers in a way never before possible using traditional marketing tools. It allows you to venture into and test new markets in a fraction of the time and cost as it might have in the past. Social marketing allows you to target a specific market, region or prospect like never before.
The real key for most small business as well as anyone marketing on the internet, is to understand the power of social networking and how to develop and implement an effective social marketing strategy. To often people get caught up investing time and energy on LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace and Twitter with no target in mind and no strategy in place. Most lack the knowledge as well as the tools and techniques that can make these social marketing portals so powerful for them and their business. They put time into it, see no real results, get frustrated and QUIT!
The Five Essentials for Effective Social Marketing
There are five essential elements to an effective social marketing strategy that I call the Social Marketing Essentials. You need to implement these guidelines to leverage the power of social networking and impact your overall personal and business marketing strategy. They are:
- Establish Your Objective and Identify You Target
- Choose the Correct Social Portals to Meet Your Objectives
- Develop an Interactive Profile – Set Yourself Apart!
- Using Tools and Widgets Effectively
- It’s All About “Capturing Your Target “!
To learn more about Social Marketing Essentials and how to Establish a Social presence for You and Your Business I have developed a live training webinar where I teach you how to develop an effective social presence, whether you are brand new to social networking or a seasoned networker. To learn more CLICK HERE or visit Bssential Small Business Essentials
Bill Sifflard - With over thirty years experience as an entrepreneur, an executive, an author and as a business consultant, Bill Sifflard has a long history of experience bringing innovation, efficiency and success to large and small businesses adapting to evolving markets.
As a premiere Sales and Marketing Innovator, Bill is changing how business integrates traditional marketing strategy with the power and potential of the internet utilizing his "Velocity for Success" matrix.
To learn more about Bill and Bssential Small Business Solutions you can visit http://www.bssentials.com and register for his Free eNewsletter or follow all of his blog posts by clicking on the RSS feed button above. 
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