One of the methods of marketing your small business is through social media sites including Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and Pinterest. And this method works well if you know how to manage it. However, many small business owners or marketing managers don’t really take the time to examine which social media sites fit their customer profiles. Additionally, often companies spread their social media marketing too thin..
Making Social Media Marketing Work
It is a much better practice to concentrate your time on just one or two sites using a planned strategy instead of trying to do them all. While social media sites do come and go, there are several that have been online for years and are growing or maintaining their equilibrium quite well. A case in point is StumbleUpon which was founded way back in 2002, yet it is still going strong.
If men are part of your target audience, StumbleUpon is currently a much better choice than Pinterest. While Pinterest is working hard to increase their numbers of male users, it is still dominated by women users. StumbleUpon is also a better site to promote your content on if you do not have a lot of images, or your images do not fit the parameters on Pinterest. Like any social site, you need to spend some time on it regularly and can’t just spam your followers.
Learn the Ropes
Whichever site you choose to focus on, learn the ropes. Each site has written and unwritten rules, as well as its own culture. You need to learn how to promote yourself, how to present your media and how to engage your followers.
How to Fine-Tune Your Content
- Never, ever, ever spam. Learn the no-no’s for the site and don’t cross the line
- On image sites, present the image in the proper format
- Curate your content wisely and trim it when necessary
- Don’t assume, check all incoming links
- Don’t over-post. You will get banned
- Respect your followers
- Create a plan and follow it
Measure Your ROI
You are creating the social media content for a reason, to get traffic and conversions to your site. Therefore, you need to test your plans to make sure the time and money spent is netting the return you want.
To check this, track your results and test to improve them. Only by checking regularly and frequent A/B testing will you be able to determine what works, what doesn’t and how to improve the results.
Try New Sites Sparingly
Trying new sites is a good idea, but it shouldn’t overwhelm your current strategy. If you hear of a new social media site that seems like a good fit for your audience, budget time to explore and test it, then determine if you should reduce time on a current site.
Remember that every social media site takes time to get to know and glean results. In this game, the turtle beats the hare every time.
Paula A is a freelance writer available for projects at WriterAccess.
