Take a look at the Internet. Everywhere you turn, savvy business people are busy promoting their companies on blogs, FaceBook pages, Twitter, and a host of other social media platforms.
What about you? Are you actively using the social media to reach out to the online masses? Are you taking advantage of the various social networks to build your own online community of people who will help you spread your message to their friends and their friends’ friends?
If you aren’t, you had better ask yourself why not, and take a good look at the reasons that you come up with. They are probably just bad excuses in disguise and, by leading you to inaction, these so-called reasons are eating away at your business’ potential to reach out to the widest audience possible.
It’s time to unmask the 7 deadly excuses for not using social media marketing and start to see these little critters and see them for what they really are!
1. “I don’t see the value of social marketing.”
If this is the case, you might want to read why social networking is not a waste of time and also learn a few social marketing lessons from Barak Obama, who successfully engaged the online masses and went on to win the election and become the most powerful man in the world. If you happen to have no idea what social marketing is about, watch this slideshow and get yourself up to speed.
2. “I’ve already tried it, but it didn’t work for me.”
You see, social media marketing is not a magic formula for instant Internet traffic. If that is what you were expecting, it is hardly surprising that you were disappointed with the results. Rather, the social networks allow you to connect with thousands of potential customers online and get them to help you spread the word, as we already explained. Just like building your business network in the real world, this is not something that happens overnight, but comes as a result of a little effort, sustained over time. Think of it like planting a seed and watering it regularly. One day you will wake up to ripe fruit waiting to be picked!
3. “My niche customers don’t use social networks.”
Is that really so? What does it say when even undertakers are blogging about their business. Think about that! No matter what you do, or who your target audience is, a good portion of them are bound to be online and accessible through the social media. This doesn’t meant that all social media platforms will work equally well with all demographics, but it is just a question of taking a look at what the people you want to target are using.
The reality is that the only way you might get away with this excuse is if you do business exclusively with some remote part of the world that still has to get connected to the Internet. Either that, or if you are living in a dystopian future where soulless machines have taken over and make all the purchasing decisions for their human underlings!
4. “I don’t have the time to market my business online.”
How much time don’t you have? It will probably come as a surprise to you that 15 minutes a day is all it takes to revolutionise your social marketing and start making a difference. Get into the habit of doing a little bit of social marketing each day when you check your e-mail and ask your staff to do the same. Just like with the bucket that gets filled drop by drop until it eventually overflows, you’ll suddenly wake up one day and realise that your small social marketing efforts are paying off!
You don’t even have 15 minutes? Then take 5 and think about how important it is that you find that time pronto!
5. “We’re in the middle of a crisis. How can I spend more money on social marketing?”
Here’s the good news: you don’t have to spend a cent if you don’t want to! All the social networks that you ought to be using are free and you will also find plenty of free information to set you on the right track on this blog and other websites.
Of course, you can pay online marketing professionals to help you kick-start your social marketing or to teach you how to make the most of it - and this is one of the most important services that we, at Sorted Sites, offer our clients. What’s more, every cent you spend on social media marketing goes much further than with traditional marketing. This is partly because you can do the much of the day-to-day work yourself and, more importantly, because the whole idea behind social network marketing is to rope in other users on your social networks and get them to help you spread the word by word of mouth - something they do for free.
But still, if you have got absolutely zero budget, you can (and should) get started with social network marketing on your own and start building your own online community bit by bit, until you are ready to take things to the next level.
6. “I can’t measure the results of my social media marketing”
That is just not true. There are many ways (and online tools you can use) to measure how effective your different social media marketing tactics are, the simplest of which is simply to see how much traffic they are sending to your website. What’s more, with applications like Google Analytics, you can can track visitors to your site and see exactly how well they are converting into enquiries or sales. And best of all, you can even identify the weak points in your site where you are losing sales and tweak them as necessary to improve conversions. More about this in an upcoming blog post.
7. “FaceBook, Twitter, Flickr… I have no idea where to begin!”
It is true that with all the different social networks to choose from, you may feel overwhelmed at first, especially if you are not all that tech-savvy. But fear not! Like all things, getting your social marketing up and running will turn out to be much easier when you know how to go about it.
This is why we have put togeher a quick guide to getting your business started with Social Marketing. Follow it step by step and you’ll be well on your way to Internet marketing success!
So, there you are. The time for making excuses is over! Take the bull by the horns and get started using the social media to market yourself more effectively, like your competition are doing. It’s either that, or getting left by the wayside.