How can I incorporate social media into my small business marketing effort?

[Suz]

What are some ways to use Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites to spread the word about my business?

[Luis]

Social Media can be a great way to generate traffic to your business. But just like email became flooded with spam, social media sites can develop the same problems.

Social media sites are not about pitching your wares. Its about connecting with groups of people who have similar interests, are looking for useful information,being a fly on the wall, and keeping up on the latest events.

That being said The less you "Sell" and the more you inform the more money you will make. You haven't detailed what your business is, but what ever it is I would become ( or find someone who is) an expert in the field of what you do, to create valuable content (articles, videos, how-to's, top 12 mistakes, exposes, behind the scenes etc) that are big attractors for your market.

For example if you sell Shoes, be not just an "expert" about shoes but also be an expert on feet, and joints, nerves, pressure points, back pain etc. and create content about those topics and how they relate to shoes.

"How to relieve the 7 pressure points on your feet that cause those nagging migraines you have everyday."
"Trying to get rid of those last 5lbs? You might be wearing the wrong shoes. Take this quick test to find out now"

Explain to people that you are always finding new and interesting shoes and that you update twitter a lot and that's the place to get the latest on what you are up to.

Ethically bribing people with your content in exchange for them following you on twitter is an option, but making sure you actually provide them with interesting, funny, quirky, actionable knowledge and experiences is what social media is all about.

The content you make, create a buying criteria and if the people viewing your content agree with your buying criteria they will also accept who you are and what you are selling.

Also make sure you invest maybe 20 min a day finding interesting stuff in your field but not specifically about you that your followers and friends would be interested in. figure for every 8 or 9 posts about other interesting things you find, you then post one about something you are doing.

Hope that helps you out.

[saoceanblue]

Incorporating social media into your small business marketing efforts relies on multichannel syndication. You must be extremely proficient at rapidly repurposing and releveraging content for massive exposure. Most people spend a great deal of time creating content, but then fail to spend the time promoting their content.

To incorporate social media you need to develop your own social media convergence/preeminence strategy. There are four steps. These steps are understanding mindshare and how it is created, developing targeted, and relevant content, creating a central focus or hub and mastering the process of multichannel syndication.

[loudrecess698]

The sites you have listed is to make connection/ friendship. Once you make network with the contact , you have to build a relation ship with the network or else you will be spamming your lead and build trust in what you are promoting , this way you not only build a rapport but also use your network / contact to promote your business.

[Copy9marketing]

I can show you exactly how use social media (free traffic) to promote anything including your business. I just developed a whole free training course on this. Go to http://www.copy9marketing.com, sign up and spread the word! Enjoy!

[AdamRoot]

Great question! Social Media falls into a larger umbrella called "Inbound Marketing." Traditionally marketing would be 1) cold calls/ telemarketing 2) print marketing such as magazines or newspapers 3) radio advertising 4) TV advertising 5) outdoor advertising. The before mentioned techniques would be labeled as "Outbound Marketing."

50 years ago companies like P&G, McDonald's, and Pfizer built their brand with these techniques. The problem with outbound marketing today is: consumers have DVRs so they do not watch TV commercials; consumers have iPods so I don't listen to the radio; consumers subscriptions rates to magazines and newspapers are near extinction; and consumers have learned to ignore "interruption marketing" such as telemarketing through services like caller ID.

Newer companies within the last 10 years such as Google, Facebook, and Amazon have used Inbound Marketing. Using Social Media will give you leverage to compete with bigger brands and with bigger budgets. Here is how:

Create Profiles on Social Media Sites: Although there are many social network sites it is best to get your feet wet on 1) Facebook 2) Twitter and 3) LinkedIn.

Facebook:
Create a Fan Page for your business. Click on this link http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php and follow the setup instructions.

Twitter:
Create an account by navigating to https://twitter.com/signup. Follow the instructions to setup your account.

LinkedIn:
Create a personal account and a company page. To create a personal account go to http://www.linkedin.com/companies?didentcompy=.

What's Next
In general listen. See what your target audience is talking about, and then after you understand add value by sharing your thoughts. Below are a few specific examples:

Twitter:
You have 140 characters. Be short and link back to more information on your website or blog. By linking back to your website you create traffic and allow your site to be indexed by search engines. Both are good.

Facebook:
Pose questions. Share resources that your target audience would find of value. Think of your Facebook Fan Page like a forum.

LinkedIn:
Answer questions posted by your target audience. This will give you "expertise" which is rewarded with green stars in the category your answer was selected as the best answer. Link your blog to your company page. By adding your blog to your company page your LinkedIn page will share your latest blog post with the professional community.

I hope that helps, and if you have any questions feel free to connect with me on Facebook (http://www.linkedin.com/in/adammroot).

In addition I have listed a few resources to help get you going below:
1. http://www.getawebsite.com This is a great resource to easily build your website, and have a built in blog.

2. http://www.agencyentourage.com Social Media marketing agency that I work for that specializes in social media. Our blog has several articles with free resources.

Good luck