Quattro motivi per cui i Social Media sono essenziali al proprio Business ed i 5 Places da cui iniziare!

Sicuramente avrete sentito parlare di Social Media, avrete letto “Follow us on Twitter” da qualche parte e probabilmente sarete iscritti a Facebook… Proprio nel caso in cui non foste ancora convinti dell’enorme cambiamento attualmente in corso nel mondo del Marketing e della Comunicazione, investite un paio di minuti per vedere il video nell’head di questo sito ;) – Social Media Revolution di Socialnomics, autore Erik Parrot – e poi tornate a leggere questo post.

By the way, the video, only a few months old, as great as it is, already has some outdated stats. If Facebook were a country, for instance, it would now be the 3^rd largest in the world, not the 4^th as the video suggests. So now, you know how big social media is, but what can social media do for your business? Does it really matter to your bottom line that so many people are using social networks to connect and share? Here are 4 reasons it does matter:

1) Your customers and prospects are there already, waiting to talk to you. You can either join the conversation, or let them talk about you and your competitors, the good, bad and ugly, without responding. If you don’t believe me, go to http://search.twitter.com and search your name, your company’s name, and your competitor’s names. Or search for keywords describing what you do. You’ll be surprised at what you find.

2) It’s low-cost marketing. No, not free, as some mistakenly believe, but low-cost – compared to traditional vehicles such as tv, radio, print, direct mail, and outdoor advertising. Most of what you pay for is time- your staff’s time or a company such as our firm’s time. But the time and money you invest now can directly correlate to future success – as long as you use social media to engage people, not spam them.

3) It’s way more than just marketing. Social media can help virtually all aspects of your company – obviously marketing and pr, but also sales and business development, customer service, operations and human resources.

4) Done well, social media marketing is word of mouth, on steroids. Word of mouth is the oldest and purest form of marketing. I like to joke that it’s been in fashion since Eve said to Adam, “You’ve got to try this apple.” Surely your business has grown thanks to referrals and positive word of mouth. Now imagine your happiest client sharing how much they loved working with you with 100 Facebook friends, Twitter followers or LinkedIn connections.

Once you make the decision to invest your time and your company’s time and money in social media, it can still be a daunting process. With thousands of social networking sites and tools available to businesses and people, where do you start? Here are my 5 recommendations and why:

1)      Facebook: The world’s largest social media site boasts 400 million+ users and a growth rate of nearly 1 million users per day. More important, its users are your customers and prospects. Don’t believe me? There are over 6 million people in the United States alone on Facebook – that are age 60+. Facebook features individual profiles, groups and fan pages. You’ll want to set up a Fan Page for your business and/or customers. Then, share engaging content on a daily basis. Here are a few more tips for your Fan Page. You may want to consider Facebook ads to help populate your page. Because Facebook has data on 350 million people, the targeting options render the Facebook ads system as the best ad targeting mechanism in history. For example, a business attorney can target accountants in Great Neck, or an architect can target real estate developers in the Hamptons. Last Valentine’s Day, I took out a Facebook ad targeting 33 year old married employees of theKbuzz in New York. The ad copy read, “I love you Carrie” and the ad was seen by only my wife.

2)      Twitter:  The world’s fastest growing social media site may only have 50 million users, but your ability to tap into what your customers and prospects are saying right now on Twitter is unparalleled. Once you begin, you’ll want to follow thought leaders in your industry and people tweeting about you or what you do. As with Facebook, and really all social networks, you’ll want to share lots of great content – not necessarily your own, but articles and links your customers would want to read and would find helpful. Twitter will take a lot of time, but most of our clients on Twitter not only find it to be rewarding for their business, but actually personally rewarding as well.

3)      LinkedIn: The world’s largest professional social network has 55 million users and is still seen as the safer choice by some professionals and high level executives. As an individual, you should make sure your profile is complete and use LI to network, learn and share. As a company, you should make sure you have a dynamic company profile, and use LinkedIn to showcase great content and  find new employees and partners.

4)      YouTube: The world’s largest video-sharing site and 2^nd largest search engine, YouTube should be the host of any video content you can create, or better yet, have customers create. I’m NOT talking about slick tv spots – a flip cam is usually enough to film a 60 second How-To video,  or an interview with an executive, customer or partner. Don’t expect to produce the next “viral video sensation” – as long as you create and share great content, it will find an audience.

5)      Blog: While most corporate blogs are unread, if you can use a blog to consistently create and share valuable content, it can search as the lynchpin to your social media strategy. You don’t have to give away the farm – but do create enough value to showcase yourself as the expert – and make people want to share your content. Great blogging software options include Wordpress, Posterous, and Tumblr.

via http://blog.thekbuzz.com