In a very short span of time, social media has rapidly risen to become the most important aspect of the marketing mix for any business of reasonable size, hands down. The influence of social media and the potential to impact your business for better or for worse is beyond dispute. In consequence of this fact, it is essential that you can master social media to ensure your business retains a strong online presence and an excellent reputation.
This does not necessarily mean that you should handle the task personally. In fact, that is usually not a good idea because firstly it is so easy to make a mistake (and the online community is very slow to forgive and forget even the most minor mistakes), and secondly because it is a waste of precious time that you should be investing into managing your business. The smarter way is to hire people who work for you specifically on that one task, either your own employees or an agency.
Ideally your social media marketing mix should provide full coverage of all the major channels, and also be at least aware of emerging trends in social media so you can anticipate future social media activities. You should be providing a lot of information on a regular basis, and that will include announcements, customer service, and advertisements. All of these should really be handled by experts who understand the requirements of the job, and who know how to create a positive image in all circumstances.
According to British SEO agency Bulldog Digital Media, the main goal of Social Media Marketing is to get people talking. Don’t be misled into believing all the hype about virality, although if your content does happen to go viral at some point, that’s definitely a good result. But this is not the goal, and should not be, because if you concentrate too much on that goal you will be missing all the ordinary every day stuff that is just as important, if not more so. Your goal is to get people talking about you, your brand, your products, and preferably talking in a good way.
Making your impression on the social media world is an ongoing task that will require constant attention and effort. It is not something that you can simply “set and forget”, nor is it something that can only be attended to occasionally. For social media marketing to be effective, it is must be a continuous and active presence, and above all, whatever you are posting online should be offering something that is of genuine value to the audience (so not just filler material or special offers, but something your audience will actually want to read about, listen to, or watch).
In general, the more you invest in your social media marketing, the better the results will be. Keeping an eye on the budget is only sensible, but don’t be afraid to invest sufficiently in developing your online presence.
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