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I’m often asked by solopreneurs and small business owners about how they can use social media marketing to better promote their business. Unfortunately, many of them are disappointed when I outline what’s involved in a successful strategy and the length of time it often takes to accomplish desired results from such a strategy.
First off, social media can help communicate information quickly – allowing it to spread in a viral fashion, however, it is a myth to think that an effective social media strategy produces results quickly. As a digital marketing coach I can tell you that depending on what your goals are it could take anywhere between 3 to 9 months for your strategy to really take shape toward your goals – it’s not a quick fix. However, the benefit of this kind of strategy is that it won’t cost you nearly the amount you would have spent on traditional advertising and it will likely be twice as effective as traditional advertising – truly good things do come to those who wait. Another myth I’d like to dispel is the myth that social media marketing is done once you set up your profiles on your social networks. I’ve seen far too many businesses pay for someone to set up their social sites and be disappointed when they get no marketing traction from that effort. If you build it, that doesn’t mean anyone will come – active participation and regular content creation are key components of a successful social media marketing strategy. Finally, there’s a myth that you can simply hire someone to run your entire social media marketing plan, and I guess that’s not really a myth, but I would caution that just because you can hire someone to deal with it so you don’t have to you likely better off learning how to use this stuff so you can provide your own authentic voice to your social networks and created content. You can hire someone for some of the heavy lifting, building of an infrastructure and to educate you on how to use this stuff, but do you really want to let someone else communicating your brand via social media who doesn’t know it nearly as well as you? There is some significant marketing credibility on social media sites for a business owner doing his or her own bidding online – as a business owner your customers see you as real and accessible. This is often a better marketing tool than any other in your arsenal, and social media can be the vehicle to help get you there. Posted by: Nick Ventuerlla Comments are closed.
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