Social Media Marketing – Effective Strategy for Small Businesses

Today, social media is widely used by business owners to promote and market their products and services as it is an effective method that connects people, provides news and information, etc. Social media marketing strategy is an ideal place to start promotion of a business because it costs nothing. This makes it a big help for small and newly-opened businesses, but then, the owner must know the proper marketing strategy to achieve great results.

The most trafficked and popular social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube, are realistically the best to use. Two good sites will do, but it will also be better if you have an account on each so your business will reach the targeted audience fast. Once you have your account ready, next thing you’ll need to do is to get friends or followers as many as possible. Update your account as much as possible by posting your latest products, services, or promos. You can also share interesting news, stories or special experiences, which are somehow related to your business or are widely talked about by everyone. To promote your business better, upload photos of your products or pictures of former buyers who are using your product. Ask people to leave their comments and be open for suggestions.

On the other hand, using twitter is also an effective social media marketing strategy. The main key in getting your business promoted in Twitter is to gain as many followers as possible. You can start a conversation then proceed to promotion later.  Don’t start introducing your business right away because people may think that you are only talking to them to promote your business. It will always be best to do things slowly but surely.  Though you can promote your business on your own, some business owners hire others to help them gain more exposure. “Celeb Tweets,” are ordinary people who have many followers. When you hire one, they can promote your products and services to their followers. Usually, a “Celeb Tweet’ has a hundred thousand followers.

How Facebook Becomes So Popular in Social Media?

A Glance at Facebook’s History

Facebook is a social networking website that was launched in 2004 by Harvard students, Mark Zuckerberg, Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes. Recognized as the most active and most used social media site, Facebook’s online service focuses on building relations to people. The history of Facebook stems when Facebook, Harvard’s people directory was publicized online.

As of 2012, there are roughly 850 million recorded active users of Facebook, of whom majority are Americans. Used in social media marketing strategy, Facebook is the leading social networking site for business promotions.

Criticisms of Facebook

Facebook was banned in several countries including Syria, Iran, Bangladesh and China due to different assumptions. The website was closed down in some Islamic countries due to religious discrimination and issues. Moreover, Facebook was scored poorly by American Customer Satisfaction Index due to privacy problems, inconsistent interface and issues on spams. A study revealed that Facebook can be very addictive and can affect performance. The result comes as no surprise when 50% of British employers have banned Facebook in the workplace. Facebook was associated to poor productivity and low worker performance. Facebook has also been linked to relationship problems. Meanwhile, many Facebook users have expressed their discontent about the recent Timeline page of the site.

Politics and Facebook

The social impact of Facebook is explicitly shown. Facebook has been a consistent channel for many users in keeping in touch with friends and family using their laptops and mobile devices. The viral reputation of Facebook has created few stories that some long lost people were reunited through it. In United States, Facebook actively takes part in political debates and other politics-related activities.  Politicians, its supporters and youth view the website as an essential medium in voicing opinions and views.