time, here are some you must get to know if you are going to promote your business effectively:
▪ Facebook is one of the most popular social networks in the world. Every day it is used by billions of people. Individuals, groups and businesses all have Facebook profiles.
▪ Twitter is a ‘microblogging’ site – a place where you can write short posts of up to 140 characters. It has become a source for people to get instant information on the news and post comments and pictures, even videos and links to blogs.
▪ LinkedIn is the biggest professional social networking site. Employers increasingly expect professionals to provide a link to their LinkedIn profile before getting hired.
▪ YouTube is the largest video broadcasting and sharing site of content such as vlogs (video blogs), music videos, talks and movie-making. Find everything from funny videos to how-to videos on here.
“These days, social media waits for no one” Aaron Lee
one minute wonder Take the time to look at how your competitors are using these channels to create social networks and online communities by tweeting, blogging, posting and sharing. Social media is very different from advertisement-buying activities and other types of digital marketing.
▪ Instagram is a highly popular sharing site for photos and short videos and has helped the craze for celebrity ‘selfies’ – a picture of yourself.
▪ Pinterest is a place where you can create your own pinboard of images that you have collected and share them with your followers on the web.
▪ Tumblr is similar to Pinterest. Here, you can set up a blog, determine a theme and post all sorts of content.
▪ Snapchat is an instant messaging mobile social network. It is based around the idea of videos and photos that self-destruct after viewing.
▪ Vine is a video-sharing app. The short (up to six-second) videos can be embedded in a tweet or shared in emails or on other sites.
Use social media to make your products and services easily accessible and desirable.
What makes businesses successful is that they are always clear about their brand and where they are positioned in their marketplace.
The idea of a brand is simple. It is the thing for which you are most recognized. For example, London has Big Ben, Paris the Eiffel Tower, Nepal is known for Mount Everest. Think about a business like Virgin. Richard Branson, the owner, cleverly created a brand around himself and his business, creating a memorable name and image.
You don’t need to own a multi-million-pound business to have a great brand. Some of the best brands on the web are one-person brands. Even teenagers, posting comments and producing videos from their bedrooms, are creating valuable brands on social media. A brand is an interpretation of yourself and you can show off that interpretation across Twitter, Instagram, Google Plus or any platform you choose.
“Setting up an account is not a strategy” Businessweek
Think about what is at the core of your brand and how you want to show that to your social media audience.
▪ What do I do for a living? Do I want my brand to be around me, the person, or around the business I am involved in?
▪ What is my Mount Everest? What am I most known for? What is the core of my business?
▪ What is unique about my business? What makes me stand out from my competitors or other people like me?
▪ Why would people be interested in listening to what I have to tell them? When I meet people at a party, what do they ask me about?
If you don’t have all the answers immediately, that’s fine. It’s better to take your time than rush into social media and change your brand. That will just confuse people.
case study Zoella is a hugely successful vlogger on YouTube and has created a strong brand from small beginnings. She films short videos of interest to her audience and has a big teenage following. Her brand has been so successful that it went offline. She makes appearances off screen and was even asked to write a book which sold in large numbers to her fans. Her brand was helped by the fact that she dated another successful YouTube star and they have made videos together, creating an even-better-known joint brand.
Think about what you stand for and how to differentiate yourself from your competition.
Most of social media is free so commitment to a brand isn’t shown with money but with attention or inattention. To get that attention you need to offer a promise to people.
What difference do you want to make? What impact do you want to make? All great brands promise us something. Take a brand like Coca-Cola or Pepsi. Many drinks quench your thirst, so why buy a branded drink which costs more? Simply because the brand seems to promise more.
Some brands last for generations even though the products are very different. What do Disney, McDonald’s, Twinings and Burberry really promise you that keeps you loyal to them? We will all pay more if someone or something makes us feel better. That’s why advertisers show us adverts populated with people we want to aspire to be like. For some of us, that means buying a product associated with the perfect home and family; for others it means a link with being young and fashionable or being different and anti-establishment.
Sometimes the brand promise is obvious and sometimes it takes time to think through. Start by considering what makes your business stand out from its competitors. By knowing what makes you different you can work out what you are really promising to give people when they connect with your brand.
“Your brand is the single most important investment you can make in your business” Steve Forbes
Take a political information company, for example. What makes them different? Information is available from dozens of sites on the web. For one company it may be their humorous presentation of the news, for another the fact they are always first with the news or they have politicians rather than journalists working for them, so they are the first to learn about what really goes on in the corridors of power.
Perhaps you run a bakery. Isn’t selling cakes and bread and buns just about feeding people? Not necessarily. Perhaps it’s the way your posts of cakes in retro fifties’ settings make people feel as if they are living the domestic goddess dream. You promise the lifestyle with every product you sell.
Think about what makes you different and what your brand can promise its customers.
