The web has been the place to be seen lately. Take the case of Ted Williams a/k/a “the man with the golden voice”, or the story about the 13th sign of the zodiac. This week the web was all a twitter about the demise of Facebook. Even my mother, a dedicated technophobe, asked about it. Mark Twain once said – “the rumors of my death are greatly exaggerated.” Hmmm, was Mark the original social marketer?
All these stories this week are examples of social marketing in hyper drive. I find it funny how something can catch fire, and go viral on the web, even if the information is unsubstantiated. How can a business owner take two of this week’s social marketing skills to use them in a marketing plan?
#1 – Use social media to share your message. Ted Williams is example of using video marketing. The amateur video was taken from a smart phone and posted on YouTube. The man who had the idea was a reporter, so he knows something about the power of the visual media. Most business owners don’t realize how easy it is to use video, audio and content marketing. The SM lesson – put together a relevant video that shows you & your business, link it back to your site. YouTube is a great place to share your video message.
#2 – Encourage followers to become your sales & marketing team – The rumors of the Facebook demise was a hoax, yet it went into the stratosphere quickly via reposts, tweets and email. People wanted to be the first to share the news. A smaller example of viral internet marketing is posting something a customer might want to share about your business. The SM take away – Use the web to post coupons on social media sites, share special promotions to your email list, or tweets with “insider” deals (like airlines).
This week’s most important point about social marketing…stay in front of your customer as often as you can. A business of any size will benefit from adding a social marketing to their existing website. I promise I’m still going to write a post about using a Social Marketing Virtual Assistant – just thought these two examples were more timely and relevant today.
As always sharing is caring, so share my post with friends.
Christine
Your Social Marketing Queen
