The world of social media marketing can sometimes be a confusing and overwhelming one. There are millions of social media accounts out there so how will you get noticed? When you look and see that many accounts are “spam accounts” (ones that are only used to trick people into clicking certain links) it can seem even more difficult to reach your audience online through social media marketing.
Don’t worry. The situation isn’t as bad as it looks.
Twitter is an excellent way to promote yourself and your business as well as a place to share ideas and discuss your industry. However, there is a good way to do this and a bad way. Hint: The bad way includes spamming your website link over and over and over again.
When using Twitter to promote yourself or your business, you have to consider your audience first. Remember that most people are not on Twitter to see ads or to have people try and sell them things. Most people are on Twitter to share ideas, thoughts and articles they’ve read online. They are on Twitter to discuss issues, current trends and to find out what’s happening nearby and around the world.
As you can see from the image above, the Twitter homepage encourages you to “Follow Your Interests.” Always keep that in mind when posting on Twitter.
Social media marketing is certainly a big deal these days. As mentioned a while ago, “96% of marketers say that they use social media.” Marketing through Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and other social media services is an excellent way to distribute your message directly to your clients. It’s also an excellent way to engage in conversation with customers and the general public, as well as to discuss issues t hat are important to your industry or niche.
But how do you know if your social media marketing efforts are paying off?
I recently found a social media infographic on Pamorama.com that discussed how marketers are using social media to promote their products, services and companies. You can view the infographic here (it’s quite large.)
It’s very interesting that 96% of marketers say that they use social media to promote themselves. Another 3% say that they plan to use social media. Only 1% say that they have no plans to promote via social media. Twitter and Facebook are almost equally important among marketers.
The entire infographic is quite interesting and it shows how the world of marketing and promotion is changing rapidly. The number of marketers that use social media has increase by 8% in the last year.
Using Facebook and Twitter for promotion is an excellent way to reach your audience directly and form discussions and conversations about your brand. Social media is quite powerful and must be handled correctly. A good social media campaign can help your company immensely, but a weak one can seriously hurt your brand.
New research in Scotland says that the more Facebook friends you have, the more stressed you are likely to become. Psychologists are even comparing Facebook to a gambling addiction.
It’s not uncommon for young adults on the social networking site to have close to 500 friends, but research says that the average person only has the emotional energy for 2 or 3 close friends.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, researchers at Cornell University say that Facebook may actually boost your self-esteem. They say it’s because we all tend to put our best foot forward online and create a very positive image of ourselves.
In addition to the ideas above, social media can also use up a lot of time during the day! This is especially true if you use Facebook, Twitter or read and write blog posts in order to promote yourself and your business online! Sometimes you’ll find that it’s tough to walk the line between “social promotion” and “wasting time.”
