It’s clear that social media has grown dramatically during the last few years and that with an increase of than 800 million active users, the amount of Facebook users is easily more than twice the size of the complete population of america!
Its growth has been astronomical now, thousands of people are posting more personal and business information online than previously. It’s happening at lightning speed with thousands of posts, tweets and uploads occurring every hour.
Recent research conducted by the Australian Interactive Media Industry Association (AIMIA) commissioned by Sensis Pty Ltd (May 2011, p. 10) indicates, that “62% of Australian Internet surfers use a variety of social media sites, with many visiting every day and most at least a few times a week.” It’s no real surprise that with the millions of prospective customers from everywhere using these sites, each day, that so many businesses have decided to include social media marketing into their marketing mix. Nonetheless it also important to get an understanding of how these sites are being used and what’s involved in maintaining or resourcing your organization presence on these sites. Your web footprint can stick around for years so don’t underestimate how this may affect the perception of your brand available in the market place. Spend some time upfront thinking about whether social media marketing is right for the business.
1. Seek first to comprehend – It is very important that you understand the fundamentals of how is social media actually works and how it’s being used. What are people and businesses doing with social media marketing? What gets them results? A few of you may be thinking, how do I do this? Perhaps you could consider trying it out on your own by setting up a personal account, then testing a few of the features, or get a trusted friend to show you their account and show you through. Alternatively you can find so many resources and ‘how to’ items online about social media, that you could run a explore Google or on YouTube on a particular topic of interest and watch the video tutorials to obtain informed.
2. Understand your purpose – What’s your purpose is for using social media marketing? What do Luxury Travel Guides desire to achieve for your business by using it? It’s really important that you identify your purpose for getting involved in social media marketing (or any other marketing activity for that matter). You need to work out why you are taking part. What do you expect to achieve? Do you simply desire to build brand awareness, build relationships your customers or identify new sales opportunities? Remember to be realistic about what you believe you will be able to accomplish.
3. If you decide to engage in social media marketing, which sites are best for you personally? – With the plethora of social media marketing sites available, which ones are best for the business? Think about where your market would socialize online, and take into account the amount of time and resources you would realistically be able to invest in maintaining and administering your website presence. Those are right for you? You will probably find that some are a better fit than others.
4. Quality Content – In the event that you decide that social media marketing is right for the business, carefully think about the amount and quality of information you would like to share in the web sphere. Remember it’ll probably stay there for some time, so you must make sure it accurate and reliable information that’s valuable to your market. It has to be relevant, otherwise people will not read it.
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