Read & write

Marketing through social media is all about connecting with your customers. Social media has made it possible for the ordinary consumer to directly interact with the merchant. This has helped many companies strengthen their relationship with their customers, thus increasing customer loyalty. You can use social media marketing in improving your business as well. Read the following article for some great ideas.

First, you should become familiar with what the popular social media platforms are. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Youtube and Pinterest are some of the more popular platforms right now. It is important that you establish a business presence on these websites. Open an account in each, and create a business profile. Try to keep your profile information consistent among these sites because that helps your visitors and followers recognize your business from site to site.

When you have your accounts created, think about how you can use those in bringing visitors to your business website. Your website should already have rich content that your visitors find helpful. Now, you will strategize in how you can link your social media presence to your site.

Start by creating a link for each social media platform that you can include on each page of your website. A good spot would be somewhere in your header banner or by your navigation menu. Get the respective icons for each of your social media sites and post your links.

On your website, encourage your visitors to follow you on the social media sites for the latest announcements. Give them a reason to follow you, like offering special deals or promotions to your followers.

When you are making your first post in your social media accounts, introduce yourself and describe what information your visitors should expect to see here. For example, if you are creating your first post in Facebook, give a brief description of your business, and encourage people to post comments or questions about it. When you do get some feedback, respond to it promptly by acknowledging the poster and answer any questions promptly. It is this type of direct interaction that makes social media so effective in building strong customer relationships. Each poster can see the comments and responses from everyone else, so a little community can develop. This complements email marketing which is a one-to-one interaction for more personal questions.

Remember to include a link back to your main website from your social media accounts. The linking between your website and social media should be mutual to encourage visitors to remain with you. Generate more traffic by offering incentives for referrals.

Write a blog as an additional way to generate traffic to your website and social media accounts. In your blog, write about related topics that you think your target audience will be interested in.

The key is to get your brand out on the web in any way possible. Explore various avenues. The more interest you can generate, the more popular your website will become.