As a category, social networking sites are probably the most used sites on the Internet after search engines. Sites like Facebook and Twitter are mentioned as the powerhouses of the Internet, along with Google. So if you’re trying to market a business online, you can’t overlook its potential as a small business marketing tool.
Almost everyone online now has a Facebook profile or Twitter account, and each of these people can be considered a potential customer. By trying to find ways to promote your products on those sites, you will reach far more customers than you would if you stuck with other online marketing methods like SEO. This is not a recommendation that those methods be abandoned, but rather a suggestion that you can create an even more successful business by augmenting your existing internet marketing campaign to include these more social advertising opportunities.
There are two ways to increase your sales through social networking sites. The first is to use the sites as a marketing tool and create profiles for your business on these sites. This is a great way to engage with your customers, build trust in your brand, and start and open an engaging dialogue about your services and niche with the public.
If you choose to do this on Facebook, you’ll be setting up a business page, rather than a regular profile. There is no such distinction on Twitter. Then, on Facebook, instead of people becoming friends with your business like they would with your personal profile, you’ll “like” your business page instead. This is a great way to build a following. On Twitter, you would set up and run a business profile similar to how you would a personal one.
There are also paid advertising options that you can explore in the realm of social media. Because social media is still relatively new in terms of Internet life, there is likely to be more growth and development in how these advertising models work. As it is though, there are ways you can pay to advertise your products through social media; most notably and powerfully, through Facebook.
Facebook has a powerful system for buying advertising. This works on a system like the one used by the major search engines; a pay per click system. This means that you will bid a certain amount that you want to pay each time someone clicks on your ad. Then you will only pay when someone actually clicks on your ad, not just when your ad is shown. This is a great model to at least make sure your message gets seen.
The great aspect of these ads is that, like everything else on social networking sites, they are social. If someone likes an ad you’ve posted, you can actually like it. This will cause it to display your newsfeed and the newsfeeds of your friends, who will hopefully click the link, like it, and repeat the process. This social aspect of advertising is what makes the process of advertising with Facebook so attractive. People are also much more likely to trust a product or company when it is recommended by a friend than if it were simply a random ad on a web page.
With Facebook, there is also a strong market for in-app advertising as well as on front pages. So, if you have an ad that is successful or an ad that is in a successful app, then the social sharing aspect of the site should spread your message like wildfire.