Whether
you are a small business just getting started and working with a
shoestring budget, or you are a larger, well-established company with
more resources, a solid social marketing campaign can mean the
difference between bringing new customers in the door and driving them
away. But choosing an effective social media campaign is not as easy as
you might think. There are seven important questions you should answer
when choosing how you want to reach out to the masses with a social
media campaign. We've outlined these below to help you get started.
Do you want to handle the campaign yourself?
Before
setting forth on this adventure, you need to determine if you will have
a dedicated member of your staff handle your social marketing campaign,
or if you'll contract this task out to a company that handles this type
of marketing. It may be more cost-effective to handle it in-house at
first, as long as you have someone on staff that is knowledgeable on
this topic. If you and your employees have little or no experience with
social marketing, you should probably hand the job over to a
professional.
How big is your budget?
Budget is a concern with any type of marketing campaign. Marketing to prospective customers via sites such as Twitter and Facebook
is basically free. However, these sites can take a while to get your
company out there and build up a large following. Other campaigns, such
as paid version of LinkedIn
and several others, can come with fees. Flesh out your budget and then
you will have a better idea of what sites you can afford.
Who makes up your current customer base?
This
is a huge aspect of any social marketing campaign. You must choose
sites that your current customer base will actually use. MySpace was the
big social media site seven or eight years ago, now the masses have
moved to Facebook and other sites. If you are advertising on a site
where no one will see you, you are wasting time and effort.
What demographic are you trying to reach?
You
also have to determine who you are trying to reach out to. LinkedIn is a
site for professionals who are looking to network with other
professionals and find job opportunities. If your target demographic is
college students, you won't have much luck there. Almost everyone has a
Facebook or Twitter
account which is great, but it also means that these users can be
overwhelmed with marketing attempts, so you may want to choose another
method. YouTube is great for reaching almost everyone if you have the time to invest in video recording and editing.
What types of social marketing tools do you want to use?
Do
you want to use a text-based platform such as Twitter, where you post
short blurbs every day to reach out to customers and potential
customers? Do you want a platform such as Facebook, where you have more
options as far as postings, and your customers can interact with you
more? And YouTube is the Internet video giant, so it's probably the best
choice for videos.
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