As many of you are aware, Twitter has really become one of the internet power players. It’s popularity is growing fast, so it’s important to harness this power and use it to your advantage. Essentially, Twitter is an online micro-blogging community and a place to build relationships. So, what makes businesses successful on Twitter? Well for one, it definitely takes a lot of work, but there are several factors that can lead to ultimate business success on Twitter.

“This is Who I Am”
Remember to include within the bio or custom background of your Twitter business profile the names and/or @usernames (if individuals in your organization have personal Twitter profiles). This adds a human element to your business and allows individuals to get a feel for the people who represent your company. It definitely lends a face to the “voice” among the various Tweets.

“I Hear You!”
“Listen” for comments about your organization, products and/or services you provide. Doing a simple search on the newly designed Twitter homepage, will increase your overall knowledge on what customers and individuals are saying about your organization. This will assist your in your brand management campaign and enable you to address areas of growth and/or possible short-comings.

“I’m The Nice Guy ”
Remember to include links to articles and sites that are useful for your readers. Don’t be to self indulgent and only thing to your site, unless you truly offer added value. Remember to keep your tone friendly and conversational, even if you are dealing with individuals that paint your organization, products/services in a negative light. It’s really about increasing the value and credibility of your Twitter business page.

“I’ll Tell You The Same Story I Told Carrie, Larry AND Harry.”
It’s important not to spam people. You are not tricking anyone and this type of campaign only angers people. Try to create dynamics and original messages for individuals you are in contact with. People really appreciate the time businesses spend to respond and provide high quality information. In return, your customers will definitely hold you in higher regard for your ability to provide useful information.

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Social media is either free or extremely inexpensive:
Although setting up accounts and using social media websites like Facebook, YouTube, or StumbleUpon may be free, enacting an effective social media marketing campaign will cost a significant amount of money.  Just as any other successful marketing campaign, you have to initially spend money in order to make money; social media marketing is no different.

You need a number of elements for your social media marketing campaign to be fruitful, starting with an interactive website.  Software that will allow users to purchase products on this site, as well as facilitating user-generated content are two necessities for a successful social media campaign, neither of which are cheap.  Additionally, you will need to successfully distribute content, and create groups and links on social networking sites like Linked in or Facebook to establish an online community and forum for discussion.  Then, of course, you will need to have your site optimized so that it draws more users to it.

Effectively using social media to market a company is easy to do:
Many individuals claim to be social marketing experts and gurus, but do not take these types of self-assertions on face value.  Since anyone is capable of creating an account on social media sites, some users that spend an exorbitant amount of time on these sites begin to consider themselves experts.  In reality, using social media in such a way that it renders a measurable increase in company revenues is no easy task.  Only by incorporating social media into a variety of marketing elements such as advertising, digital media, and public relations will proffer true results.  Online marketing requires individuals that are well versed in creating blogs, forums, contests, and other interactive designs; these are complex and intricate tasks only to be handled by a professional.

Social media marketing is a great “quick fix” strategy:
Since the internet is so highly populated with perusing consumers, many people believe that social media marketing will be a quick and effective strategy to boost product sales.  On the contrary, social media marketing is a progressive and on-going project; you can think of it as a seed that in time, if appropriately tended to, will grow into a fruitful plant.  It is not impossible for social media to have an immediate effect on your business sales, but it is more likely to be increasingly beneficial as time goes on.
For example, your small business may start out with a twitter following, but by driving more traffic to your site, it will be higher optimized in organic Google results, which will then likely bring more potential customers to your site.  In this way, social media marketing is a somewhat circular and cumulative process.

You must choose between social media campaigns and traditional digital marketing strategies:
There is no rule that mandates that you must choose either a social media campaign or a traditional digital marketing approach.  Given that you have the funding, there is no harm in doing both simultaneously.  Many companies may want to invest in social media marketing to supplement their digital media campaigns, as current trends seem to indicate that social media will likely be increasingly profitable in the future.

In fact, Pepsi is an example of the successful integration of these two marketing approaches, as they had a “refresh everything” campaign that followed a traditional digital marketing plan as well as simultaneously cultivating social media marketing through their “Dear Mr. President” campaign.  This resulted successfully for them; it seems only logical that by using both forms of marketing, its possible to reach a broader range of consumers.

Social media campaigns always have the potential to come back and bite you…:
Since utilizing social media forums does provide consumers with an open stage to express their feelings on a given product, the fear of many marketers is that they will be unable to control negative remarks stated by consumers.  Some worry that social media can undo the meticulous branding that their company’s marketing has already established.

In truth, however, there is a way to control this issue.  Companies need to use more structured social media outlets that do not permit all and any type of commentary.  You can limit the degree of displeasure you allow consumers to express to a level of neutral or better.  In the same token, this type of tighter-structured campaign can also prevent the public from too heavily influencing product image and brand.

Related

• What is Social Media Marketing?
• 5 Social Media Websites You Need to Be Apart Of

Youtube:
Youtube is a networking site that allows users to upload and share videos with the public. Viewers do not have to be members of the site to view the videos, so the site is accessed by millions of people in a wide variety of demographics. While the original intent was to allow amateur filmmakers to share their works with the public, in recent years the site has become popular with organizations who share videos of their upcoming products, events, and promotions. Recently, businesses have also created instructional videos, videos to offer general information about their organization, and sponsored contests. Youtube is a unique and creative way for business to reach potential customers in a wide variety of demographics.

Twitter:
Twitter has become the fastest growing site of this year, and is currently ranked as one of the 50 most popular websites. It allows users to create and receive 140-character messages, known as “tweets,” to inform their “followers” of what is happening in their daily lives, and users can also choose to update or receive tweets through their phone, making the site accessible almost everywhere. Through “tweeting,” Twitter has become a tool that allows businesses to remain up to date with their clients, and inform them of product, services, and events they are offering. The site also offers businesses to track their competitors to see what they are doing, and what promotional events they are offering their customers.

Facebook:
Facebook is one of the largest social networking site that currently has over 250 million users around the world. To view Facebook, users must create an account to see other profiles, and they can also join “networks” that link users in the same location together. While the site was originally created as a resource to allow college students to reconnect with each other, businesses have recently started creating their own profiles to inform others of their company. Facebook also offers businesses the opportunity to place ads that are customized to the viewer’s location, on the side of the page, for an additional way to become more visible to customers.

LinkedIn:
LinkedIn is used in a similar way to Facebook, however rather being accessed by the public, the site is targeted only to business professionals. The site currently has over 40 million users in 170 industries, and is a unique tool that allows connects business together to share information and collaborate. It is also a useful resource for providing specialized information to a targeted audience.

Digg:
Digg is slightly different from the aforementioned sites, in that it is a social news site that allows users to share stories with each other and vote on the ones they feel are the best and most interesting. Businesses can post articles about their products to reach a wide variety of demographics, and if the article is moved to the main page, it can instantly be seen by thousands of viewers leading to a dramatic increase in traffic to that website.

Related

• What is Social Media Marketing?
• 5 Social Media Myths

The idea behind social media marketing is to harness the some of the online chatter exchanged on the web to help promote a product, service, or business.  Traditional viral marketing techniques like word of mouth are taken to a whole new level on the internet.  Since online conversation, be it through blogs, social networking, email, etc., is being constantly generated and regenerated, the rate at which word of mouth traditionally circulates is boosted to a whole new velocity.  This means a whole new level of exposure via social media marketing is possible, if it is carried out correctly.

Viral marketing is most successful in terms of delivering a positive return on investment when marketers are able to identify individuals with high social networking potential, or SNP, and get them to pass along a tempting offer or promotional deal that is likely to capture the interest of this individual and others so that it will continue to travel through social circles at a fast pace.

Other sites like Digg and Delicious play a hand in the social media marketing arena; these sites give people an easy way to quickly pass along online content to others whom they want to share it with.  Moreover, social media marketing can be used to drive traffic to a company’s website.  Networks like Facebook, for example, now have features that facilitate the creation of company pages, where individuals can become fans of a certain company, product, or service and have a forum to talk about it.

Social media has dramatically changed the way consumer marketing works today in that it has commenced the era of 2-way media.  Unlike old marketing techniques where companies created a brand and it was either successful or not in attaining consumer popularity, with 2-way social media marketing the consumer can actually communicate what they want, and companies can learn who their target audience is.  Moreover, the rise of social media has provided a built-in focus group for companies. The internet age and the use of social media has removed the mystery from marketing in a sense; techniques are no longer contrived on the basis of trial and error, and their success can be measured in direct correlation with sales revenue figures.  Social media has provided companies with a window with which they can hear what the public has to say, and they in turn are better equipped to pinpoint successful marketing strategies.

But social media marketing has not been all roses and sunshine for marketing companies either.  There are risks and negative repercussions that can happen when consumers are able to so publicly discuss their opinions.  If consumers end up unhappy with a product or service they buy, the web can be their angry soapbox.  Negative comments about companies and products can defile a company’s reputation.  For this reason, some businesses invest in internet presence management as a part of their social network marketing campaigns in an attempt to control slander about their company that may be spreading via social media. The other negative aspect of social media marketing is that marketers are taking a less active role in shaping product branding; brands are defined more by consumers through social networking arenas than by industry professionals, which means marketers are forced to relinquish some control over product image.

Regardless of the risks, social media marketing undoubtedly provides companies with a significant amount of exposure; companies that hesitate to join the social media marketing bandwagon will ultimately be at a disadvantage compared to those that embrace these new age, web-based marketing techniques.

Related

• 5 Social Media Myths
• 5 Social Media Websites You Need to Be Apart Of

In their own words, Twitter describes the tool as “a communications platform that helps businesses and their customers do a number of useful things. As a business, you can use it to quickly share information with people interested in your company, gather real-time market intelligence and feedback, and build relationships with customers, partners and other people who care about your company.”

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From the study… “A surprising conclusion: While much has been written questioning the value of social media, this landmark study has found that the most valuable brands in the world are experiencing a direct correlation between top financial performance and deep social media engagement. The relationship is apparent and significant: socially engaged companies are in fact more financially successful.

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