Improving Your Online Presence Part 5: How to Utilize Social Media for Marketing Your Business

Social Media Marketing Strategy Development
I suspect that the followers of this blog were more interested in this topic in this series "Improving Your Online Presence" than any other topic.
I presented on this topic in front of a group of small business owners a few weeks ago, and to be honest, at least one person was frustrated because I was asking as many questions as I was answering.
It probably has to do with my "Jesuit" education, but I believe the best way to find better answers is to ask better questions.
In the midst of one small business owners frustration she asked "How do I utilize Linked In, Twitter or Facebook to gain high value clients?"
My answer; "That's a great place to start."
In other words; you need to ask a lot of really good open ended questions to get your brain moving in the right direction.
Once you know your business goals, then start applying questions around social media and those business goals like the business owner I mentioned above.
Simple, right?

Ok-ok - let me get to the part where I give some helpful advice on social media marketing.
First of all, assuming you understand your business goals, the next step is determining how social media might help you achieve those goals.
While I have not heard of any type of business that cannot benefit in some way from social media, there are two things you need to know from the start:

1. It is likely that your social media strategy is going to be partially or almost completely unique to your business.
2. Spending a lot of time on social media may not be an efficient way for you to market your business online.

In fact, just as there were many businesses that blindly threw millions at Internet marketing back in the late 1990s and early 2000s without first developing an ROI based strategy, there is a risk that businesses will do the same with social media marketing. There is a lot of buzz around social media marketing, it is considered cool and sexy by some right now, but that doesn't mean that just jumping into to social media is going to make or break your business. You are probably at more risk of wasting time and money than making money from social media. Whatever you do, make certain you do not fail to look at search engine optimization, pay per click marketing or offline marketing.

The best advice I can give you on social media marketing is that you need to be prepared to invest resources to make it work. Which is not so different from offline social networking efforts - it takes resources, but the right work can be very beneficial for your business.


Step one: Determine how social media can help you meet your goals. In order to do this you are going to have to spend some time learning about social media. You can either spend time on the Internet or reading books on social media. You could also hire a consultant. Of course, you need to determine if you have more time or more money. If you are really busy and your time is very valuable, then it may make more sense to hire someone to develop a social media plan for you. Just make sure they take the time to understand your goals, and that the road map they give you to meet those goals has measurable results.
How much time do you need to invest? At least in the neighborhood of 10-20 hours.

Step 2: Once you have come up with a plan, you need to determine if it is going to be worth it to implement the plan. It not only takes some resources to develop a plan, it is going to take even more resources to implement it. Again, this is a balancing of time and money. Your time may be better spent doing other things to grow your business. If you have come up with a good plan, you are going to need to dedicate a significant amount of time weekly or daily to implementing it. How much time? I would estimate 1-10 hours for setup, and 2-40 hours a week of work-depending on the details of your plan, of course.

Step 3: You are going to need to track and analyze the results, make adjustments and implement the adjustments. While social media may be out of its "infancy" stage, it is still in the "toddler" stage. If you are not tracking and analyzing results, you are at significant risk of wasting a painful amount of time and/or money.

Here are some good resources for learning more about social media marketing:

• Books about Social Media Marketing
• Step by step process to developing a social media marketing strategy

Good luck-and if you need any help feel free to call me at 720-279-1876 for a free initial consultation.