We all hear that content marketing is the next best thing for online marketing and SEO (search engine optimization). This includes blog posts, social media posts, email marketing, and website content. That's great, but how do I leverage this tool for my business. We will look at three ways to do this -- finability, sharability and convertability. First, we will look at the isue of findability.
Without quoting the facts and figures about the millions of people who use Social Media for business every day the relevance of Social Media can be broken down into 5 uses.
First and foremost the point is to be Social.. Your website is a valuable source of information for prospective customers but this is one way interaction – you provide information and they read it. Social Media provides a platform for your business to have a voice...your very own virtual podium for you to reach out and communicate with current and prospective customers.
Social media is becoming the fastest way for companies to reach their desired audience and drive traffic towards their business or product. Recent studies have shown that younger generations enjoy observing pictures and videos more than reading heavy text articles. As we have seen, the younger generations are the "trendsetters." Pictures and videos are rapidly becoming the popular approach for not only sharing your every-day life style, but for advertising as well. Both small and large companies greatly benefit by connecting to social media platforms that offer picture and video.
Don't let social media intimidate you or your company! Technology allows us to continuously produce thousands of new platforms and different business portals that can seem like all too much at times. But, if you are up to date and know the most popular and efficient platforms, you will be ahead of the game. Instagram, as we discussed in our last blog post, is one of the fastest growing and most effective business platforms. If you are wondering if Instagram is right for your business or what it can offer, continue to read our previous post!
We have looked at a lot of ways to drive traffic to your website including video, PPC, E-Mail marketing and more. In this last installment, we are going to look at using Social Media to drive website traffic. Social Media has become the preferred channel for driving website traffic by businesses large and small and organizations. The key to driving traffic with social media is to provide interesting, fun or valuable content to readers. One main rule is "it is not about you". Constant talking about how great you or your company is will turn people off quicker than anything. What you want is for them to say how great your company is and the way to do that is to provide them with useful content. Posting the weekly food special for a restaurant is fine. You want to engage your customers and build trust and brand loyalty. Remember the 80/20 rule when posting content on social platforms - 80 percent of the content you post should provide some sort of value while the other 20 percent can be self promotion. Encourage your social media followers to post content on your page that relates to you or your company - for example if you have a landscaping company, encourage your customers to post photos of their yard or garden on your Facebook page. People love peer to peer content, and it will help create credibility for your company.
