Current marketing buzz is all about “social media”. Everyone touts the explosive popularity of websites like Twitter and Facebook as the next big way for small businesses to connect with customers. Is this true or is it just hype created by self-described “social mavens” who want us to hire them for expensive consultation gigs? In a contracting economy, experts agree you should increase marketing efforts and pursue all opportunities for visibility, but what can you do to turn the “followers” and “fans” on networking sites into paying customers?
Unfortunately, there is not one clear answer to that question. We do know that once your business joins a social media site, making continual updates is mandatory. With all the work you do to attract online visitors, once they get to your page they’d better not find it “stale” or else they’ll click away and on to something else that will hold their attention. “Fans” on Facebook and “followers” on Twitter need to feel like there is someone on the other side of the screen. That’s how they’ll make that social connection with your brand and that’s how, hopefully, you’ll start making deals.
The first time you hear about a new website or a development in technology, you are often made to feel like you are already behind the times. That is not necessarily true. Each small business grows at it’s own pace and when you are ready for the next step; you will know. Daily demands from current customers consume time and energy. The majority of small businesses can’t afford to keep a marketing person or a computer programmer on staff. When you are doing it all, you can’t do it all at once.
During the past year at The Suites Collection, we’ve managed to optimize our website for search engines, develop pay per click campaigns, generate this blog and post regularly on Craigslist. We now know those initiatives simply laid the foundation for a basic internet marketing strategy. Sometimes we wonder what happened to the old marketing “necessities” (Is anyone still using AOL? Even MySpace is fading!), but gazing wistfully backwards is just not helpful. Moving forward is the only way to stay relevant in this ever changing marketing environment.
We will continue to blog about how The Suites Collection is expanding its online marketing strategy to include social media. We’d love to hear about your endeavors and what you’ve experienced. And if you haven’t yet tackled these new opportunities because you don’t know how to begin, here’s a fundamental guide to getting started on Twitter.
April 14, 2009 at 8:15 pm |
Another question could be: how much time do you spend advertising and updating social network sites? That could be a full time job! It seems like we have to stop working on improving our business and instead focus our time and energy on letting people know what’s on our mind or what we are doing. At point have we reached too much technological interfacing and too little personal interfacing?
April 14, 2009 at 8:28 pm |
All good points. Ideally the client’s interfacing via social media is only a precurser to a direct call or email. That’s when you can set up a face to face meeting. And to your other point, excellent time managment is essential if you decide to incorporate this type of marketing into your small business operations (as always)!