How to Take Your Business to the Next Level Using Social Media ...

Posted on 08. Jan, 2013 by Tara Geissinger in Business Publicity

For those that may not even have been computer savvy a decade ago, it can seem entirely overwhelming to navigate the ever changing and rapidly growing world of eCommerce and all that it means to your business. It is essential however for your business to not only have an online presence, but to master the art of using social media if you wish to compete in the modern world of business.

Social media can at first seem confusing, but in reality it is quite simple to master, this does not mean however that it does not take time or effort on your part. The process of establishing a social media presence can be time consuming, but the benefits you can reap from doing so far out weight the time spent.

What Social Media Does for Your Business?

A lot of business owners understandably want to know what specifically social media can do for their business. There are a variety of different advantages to investing in a social media campaign; it is in part this diverse array of advantages that makes social media so attractive to business owners and worth investing the time and money in.

- Establish a more professional presence online with the use of Facebook and LinkedIn

- Develop relationships with customers or clients with the use of social media

- Use these relationships and social media to promote your brand

- Establish yourself as an authority within your field and continue to build trust and branding

- Increase profits overall for your business

How to Get Started with Social Media

Perhaps one of the most difficult parts of using social media to take your business to the next level is getting started. Social media is free to use, but this is a deceptive concept, since despite it being free to use, the time invested to learn how to use social media and then properly use it, is not free.

At this point you will need to decide if you will learn to use social media yourself to promote your business or whether you will take the steps to hire someone who is already experienced in the use of social media to do it for you.

Promoting your business through social media is time consuming, you must post on a regular basis, offer promotions, research and establish your authority in your area of expertise, and you must be consistent across a broad range of platforms. There is also a learning curve that goes along with making the most effective use of social media, and you must be prepared not only to take the time to learn, but that you will make plenty of mistakes along the way as you are learning.

For some, the cost of hiring an expert to handle their social media marketing campaign is more than worth the money spent, when they look at the amount of time they would spend trying to do it on their own. This is a decision that needs to be carefully weighed with your marketing budget, as well as how quickly you need your campaign to provide results and what exactly you expect to gain from your social media campaign.

Tips to get the most from Social Media

1) Get Help Setting Up Your Social Media Campaign ? Whether you choose to take on social media in house or are planning to get a professional to do it for you, a good first step is have an expert help you decide how to set up and manage your campaign. One of the most important secrets of social media is that not every business is going to benefit from the exact same approach. What type of business you run will have a lot to do with where you will focus most of your efforts in social media and how your overall campaign will look. Be willing to invest money in things such as branding and design, the more professional your business appears the more attention it will get.

2) Create an Image Not Just for Your Business But for Yourself as Well ? People love to feel ?connected? when they do business, and there is no better way to do that than to let them see the real you. Even if you give your social media over to someone else to manage, invest a bit of yourself to your Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn pages.

3) Establish Yourself as an Authority ? If people cannot find the information they want from you, they will go elsewhere. When you take the time to give them the information they need, you build trust and a relationship. This relationship is likely to hold when it comes time for your readers to spend money.

4) Keep Tabs on Your Readers ? People need to feel like someone is listening, and while most of them will understand that you cannot reply to every comment, just knowing you are there and are reading will give them a sense of dealing with a real person and can help to solidify the relationship you are attempting to build.

5) Give Freely ? Whether you give away information that no one else has, run contests, or offer specials, when you give freely it will keep your customers coming back for more week after week.

Once you master social media you will be amazed at the power it has to help your business take off to the top. Your customers will come to you, because of what you have to offer, and will stay with you because of what you will continue to offer. Creating such a vibrant community takes time and work, but it can truly take your business to the next level and beyond.

About the Author:?Kim Garst?is the Co-Founder and CEO of?Boom! Social, a personal branding and social media business consulting firm that services over 32,000 subscribers and 100+ clients. She is extremely passionate about sharing how ?you can do? social media. Kim was recently named by Forbes as one of the Top 50 Social Media Influencers. She was also named the #1 Social Media Blogger by Kred.com and voted one of the top Leading Mom?s Businesses in 2012.

Kim consults with businesses of all sizes from around the globe to help accelerate their profits by helping them integrate proven social media strategies. She also provides social media keynotes and in-depth training to entrepreneurs and corporations. Kim has an extensive following on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Pinterest. She is considered a leader in the world of online marketing.

Source: http://onlineprnews.com/blog/2013/01/how-to-take-your-business-to-the-next-level-using-social-media/

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