You’ve been posting to your social media… now what? You have some social media in use (Facebook, Twitter, Blog, Newsletter, etc.) now you need to market it to drive activity and traffic to your social media efforts… which leads to increased sales.

In a series of blogs I will address the following four important aspects of Social Media engagement:
1) Company and brand positioning using social media
2) Market research and customer profiling using social media
3) Utilizing social media for online promotions
4) Tying your social media marketing efforts to your traditional advertising and media

Here are some thoughts on aspect #1 –

A lot of companies implement their social media without looking at the companies positioning and branding and how the social media platforms support it. Many ‘new’ marketers are not implementing basic and time tested marketing concepts… and then expecting the social media platforms to support them purely based on the technology.

Social media may be considered be ‘new’ tool by many… it is a young tool, whose success is more fully realized when good ol’ marketing concepts are employed with it. Here is a short list of common concepts:

  • Consumer behavior
  • Direct marketing
  • Distribution
  • Marketing management
  • Marketing research
  • Pricing
  • Product management
    • Brand management
    • Positioning
  • Promotion
    • Advertising
    • Marketing communications
    • Publicity
    • Sales and sales promotion

Planned and organized communication is the key to success in positioning your company and brand. A company needs to clearly communicate three vital things; who they are, what they do, and why they are better than the competition. We frequently see companies whose marketing is missing one or all three of these things.

The business benefits of marketing social media (SMM), also known as Social Media Optimization (SMO), include; an additional channel or means to gain customer insight, recruitment and retention of new customers, and a method of managing reputation online.

Sharing content via social media allows potential customers to inform friends and others of positive experiences, which makes it an ideal channel for companies to gain word-of-web referrals. Additionally, the occasional negative comment can be addressed directly to fix the complaint and encourage users to give the brand another chance.

Studies share that people now spend three times more time on social media than on email. There is much to discuss, so let’s spend quality time in 2012 attracting, connecting with, and converting customers.

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