My grandmother recently signed up for Facebook.
My niece who is 12 years old, frequents Tumblr. I recently hung out with a friend and we reminisced about how we first met: on Twitter. Many people can’t make a home purchase without consulting their stylist: Pinterest. My web developer relies on Instagram and Vine for inspiration. And finally, I only make a hire when my recruiter, LinkedIn, tells me to.
So if everyone is on social media, how do you choose where to focus your marketing efforts? You could spend all your time tackling the large social media sites. Or you can use this list to help you find niche sites to target a specific market; these focus on segments such as from dance enthusiasts to design hobbyists.
However if you decide you are still going after the Facebook crowd for the large reach and segmentation, here are some some pointers to get you started. Many of the recommendations can be applied to any social media site.
General
- Every post has one of two purposes: Sharing or Generating. Know your goal!
- Connect your other social media accounts to FB and others and cross promote
- Add the key words to the user name so it has a better chance of coming up when searching
- Put the website URL in your About section
- Create an editorial calendar and pre-schedule posts with Hootsuite
- Comment and like posts on other pages so others know your page
- Integrate your email subscription form into FB page (if you use MailChimp, here is how)
Content
- Make the ratio of “selling” to “engaging info” 20%:80%
- Make a list of all the problems/challenges your super specific target customer is facing and compose posts accordingly
- Create offers only for FB fans (you can find code that hides posts from non-fans)
- Use video/infographics/cartoons/other fun and different visuals
- Create posts with questions to generate discussion
- Leverage calendar events and news events and post related to those
- Get personal: Include your photo in the FB profile (if not on the profile photo, somewhere on the photo stream
Though social media can be a huge distraction and often consume hours without any tangible returns, appropriate utilization can help build the targeted branding, recognition, and engagement to establish and grow your venture.
So how you do leverage social media for your business? Is it working in your favor? Let us know in the comments below.
This was originally created by Kriti Vichare for #entrepreneurfail: Startup Success.
asha chaudhry
niiice one kriti!!!
i should take some time out and share my social media learnings – there are heaps with trhs!!
yep – a lot of new friends forever are made over social media – alok and i were fb friends, we became long distance friends, i became his & trhs editor ALL WITHOUT MEETING EACH OTHER 🙂
we hung out online and finally met at the first structured open house in mumbai 15 months AFTER being fb friends 🙂
you might like to read alok’s article on why he’s active on social media 🙂
https://www.therodinhoods.com/forum/topics/why-am-i-so-active-on-social-media-well-its-the-ravan-conspiracy
Why am I so active on Social Media? Well, its the RAVAN conspiracy…
This post is dedicated to my good friend Nayana Somaratna.
Very often I am asked by people – ‘Why do you Facebook, Tweet and Blog so much? Don’t you have any work? Have your businesses shut down? etc etc’
Well, Nayana raised this topic is a slightly different discussion here, but the answer is the same.
Since I want to honor him, I have decided to call the explanation the RAVAN Conspiracy (Nayana is from Sri Lanka, and I am personally very smitten by Ravan. Remember also that Ravan attained Nirvana by getting himself killed by Rama. So he attained his goal).
So, what is the RAVAN Conspiracy ??
R – Reality.
For me, Facebook is REALITY. Take for example Nayana himself. I was piling some gyaan at a conference a couple of years back and Nayana came to me and asked ‘ Are you Rodinhood’? That’s the first and only day we met. But just look at the way we have interacted!
Yesterday, at a concert, I met Anand Dhople whom I had never met before. We connected on facebook and then exchanged seat numbers and met yesterday.
Facebook and the other Social media platforms actually expose me to a REALITY that I would never enjoy and experience in the real world!
I go to ANY CITY in the world and I have a real friend to MEET – with whom I share some background, post etc. That’s HUGE for me, specially since I otherwise live a very strict – Home – Office – Home life!
A – Ask
I shamelessly ASK anything and everything on my social media. And the answers and results I get are STUNNING!
I fill up vacancies, get to know which hotel to stay in Pondicherry, close on a 20k Camera, understand how to implement G+ code etc etc etc via my asking.
I cannot begin and end in explaining HOW MUCH Social Media helps me in my Business. My friends check and play my games, I get Industry contacts and everything just happens when I request!
This is ALSO why I ‘friend’ anyone and everyone. To me, everyone is someone I can learn and benefit something from!
It helps to have 12k friends 22k friends (combined count of FB/Twitter/Linkedin and others). Ask them anything and you get a reply!!
V – Voice
The Social Network is my VOICE. My belief is that by SHARING my experiences and gyaan (some people hate it and call me all sorts of names and think I am ‘dhoongi (false) etc) , but honestly – I DONT CARE.
I think that my Contribution to Society is not going to be anything significant via donations or building schools and hospitals (I am too kunjoos to do so also ) but via KNOWLEDGE SHARING.
My belief if that I can help Entrepreneurs BLOOM – then that will create much more properity and hapiness than anything else. For that I need a VOICE – and social media allows that.
I mean how else can you brand yourself ‘Rodinhood’, create blogs and social communities and get noticed? All this is less than 2 years???!!!
In March 2010, I was invited to speak at Harvard Business School thanks to my Rodinhood blog that had noticed there!
A – AWARE
I am a spiritual hippie. I SEEK to be AWARE.
Social Media – the more and merrier – fulfils that desire in me. So many times I get into fights with people and then get a good drubbing. Often, I say something that expresses my ‘internal’ blossoming and its facebook and other platforms that DRIVE ME sometimes to be aware. THE INTROSPECTION Social Media provides is a meditation.
My one sided and very anal stand on Anna Hazare taught me to be aware of things and situations and realities that I have never thought of before via others peoples sharp criticism of what I wrote.
I live in a very cozy, comfortable, cocooned Ivory Tower in South Mumbai. My social media interactions have made me AWARE of the other realities in the real world.
N – NEW
I am 42 years old. I meet school friends, college batchmates and other peers who look like they are 60.
My personal belief is that Social Media keeps me NEW
It makes me feel like I am reborn everyday because of the sheer velocity of NEWNESS that I encounter in my feeds, walls etc.
I get a NEW opportunity to say something, meet someone and just share something NEW every day.
******
So, behind every wannabe businessman – there is a VC 🙂
Now, ALL THIS BS would not be possible if I was NOT ALLOWED AND TOLERATED by my Venture Capitalist – Sumant Mandal who allows me to take a nice hefty salary and yet spend so much time on all these social media activities. In fact Sumant INSPIRED ME To start Rodinhood.
Finally you also have the real secret of why I get away with all of this…
Kriti B Vichare
So excellent Asha! Thanks for sharing!