Do you need more traffic and customers in your business? Since most business owners are in business to make money through sales of products or services, it is essential to inform prospects and customers about your offerings. Customer cannot buy a product or a service if they do not know that it exists. Obviously, that is why, as a business owner, you need to continue to advertise your business.
But when it comes to advertising, many business owners shudder at the thought of shelling out hard earned dollars on something that may or may not work. Are you one of those? Me too! The problem is that most advertising methods cost money. Sometimes a lot of money. Most business owners prefer make money, not spend it, right? Well, let us introduce you to one advertising method that costs very little, if anything. We are talking about Social Network marketing. Social network marketing takes time, but participation can basically be free of out of pocket cost if you do the work yourself. In a minute we will explain why you may not want to spend YOUR time doing social network marketing, but you certainly can do it yourself if you want.
Are you curious why you would want to take the time to promote your business on the social networks? Traffic, pure and simple. Consider these statistics:
- there were 248 million unique monthly users on the top eight social networking sites (SNS) in the US (Mintel)
- social network traffic is growing by over 40% per year (Mintel)
- 61% of internet users have a profile on at least one social networking site, up from 41% a year before (Mintel)
- 90% of consumers trust recommendations from people they know, while only 41% trust sponsored ads on web pages (Neilsen)
- having a social media presence builds the trust trust in current and potential customers (Nielsen)
- time spent on social networking sites by internet users worldwide has increased from 3 hours per month to 5.5 hours per month, an impressive 82% increase (Neilsen)
- people spend the most Internet time overall on social networks and blogs (Nielsen)
- social web sites such as Facebook are now the most common homepages for Internet users (Nielsen)
- one third of adults post at least once a week to social sites such as Facebook and Twitter (Forrester Research)
- on fourth of adults publish a blog and upload video/audio they created (Forrester Research)
- 60% of adults maintain a profile on a social networking site (Forrester Research)
- 70% of adults read blogs, tweets and watch online video (Forrester Research)
Any way you cut it, the facts are impressive. Millions of adults and teens frequent social network sites regularly and you have an opportunity to introduce your product or service to them without having to spend a dime, just by using something that is readily available online. That “something” is an online social networking website.
Although social networking websites are traditionally focused on those that would like to make online friends or develop online relationships, there are networking sites that are designed almost exclusively for business owners and professionals. These websites will allow you to share your business information with other business owners and will allow you to develop close relationships with those prospects and potential joint venture partners that share an interest in your product or service. You may find that you learn valuable business information while also walking away with a new business joint venture partner or a new friend.
While business-related social networking websites are a great way to promote your business to other business owners and job seekers, the other more generalized online social networking websites offer a great avenue to reach potential consumers of your products and services. This is a great way to get feedback about your offerings and to introduce your products to new prospects.
If you are looking to join an online community, you will need to create your own profile or profile page. If you are planning on joining a traditional social networking website, to gain access to millions of potential new customers, you are urged to be careful when making your online webpage or profile. One thing many internet users hate is being solicited directly for business. This does not mean that you cannot use social networking to your advantage; it just means that you need to be careful with how you do it. In some of the more general networks you may achieve better results by setting up a “personal” profile page rather than a business profile page. On those sites the goal is to build trust over a longer period of time.
By joining a social networking website, especially one that is popular and has a large number of members, you should be able to generate interest in your business. These sites can be a great way to “demonstrate” the value of your products and services and to promote special events, contests and coupons. If you do it well, you may tap into a totally fresh new pool of customers with a very low investment of time and money. Give it a try, it costs nothing to experiment.
Now if you are ready to really go after it, you may want to invest a little in having a pro build your social networking presence. There are quite a few tricks and techniques that will optimize the results you can receive from social network marketing and investing in a pro will generally give you a solid return on your investment.
One of the areas we will evaluate in our Comprehensive Marketing Review is how your business might benefit from a solid social marketing campaign and how that campaign could best be integrated with your other marketing efforts to maximize your return on investment. Be sure to request a copy of our complimentary “Online & Mobile Marketing Guidelines for Local Businesses” and leave your contact information so that we can determine if your business qualifies for a FREE Comprehensive Marketing Review, which will save you $199.