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Introduction
You sat back, sighing with relief that your website was running faultlessly, optimized for search engines, and producing traffic, leads, and sales. Maybe you ventured into email marketing or pay-per-click advertising to generate new customers. Then you thought with satisfaction, “I’ll just let the money roll in.”
Instead, you were inundated with stories about Facebook pages, Twitter and tweets, blogs and podcasts, Snapchat, Instagram, and all other manner of social media buzz. By now you’ve probably tried more than one of these social media platforms. Perhaps you haven’t seen much in the way of results, or you’re ready to explore ways to expand your reach, increase customer loyalty, and grow your sales with social media.
Much as you might wish it were otherwise, you must now stay up to date with rapidly changing options in the social media universe. As a marketer, you have no choice when more than 77 percent of Internet users visit blogs and social media and when your position in search engine results may depend on the recency and frequency of social media updates. Social media marketing is an essential component of online marketing.
The statistics are astounding: Facebook has more than 2.7 billion monthly active users as of the second quarter of 2020; more than 4.4 million blog posts are published every day; more than 500 million tweets were sent per day on average in 2020; and nearly 500 hours of video are uploaded every minute on YouTube. New company names and bewildering new vocabulary terms continue to flood the online world: TikTok, Snapchat, Bitmoji, influencer, and sentiment monitoring, for example.
Should your new business get involved in social media marketing? Is it all more trouble than it’s worth? Will you be hopelessly left behind if you don’t participate? If you jump in, or if you’ve already waded into the social media waters, how do you keep it all under control and who does the work? Which platforms are the best for your business? Should you take advantage of new channels or stick with the comfortable ones you’ve already mastered? This book helps you answer both sets of questions: Should your business undertake social media marketing? If so, how? (Quick answer: If your customers use a social media service, use it. If not, skip it.)
About This Book
The philosophy behind this book is simple: Social media marketing is a means, not an end in itself. Social media services are tools, not new worlds. In the best of all worlds, you see results that improve customer acquisition, retention, and buying behavior — in other words, your bottom line. If this sounds familiar, that’s because everything you already know about marketing is correct.
Having the most likes on Facebook or more retweets of your posts than your competitors doesn’t mean much if these achievements don’t have a positive effect on your business. Throughout this book, you’ll find concrete suggestions for applying social media tactics to achieve those goals.
If you undertake a social media marketing campaign, we urge you to keep your plans simple, take things slowly, and always stay focused on your customers. Most of all, follow the precepts of guerrilla marketing: Target one niche market at a time, grow that market, and then reinvest your profits in the next niche.
Foolish Assumptions
We visualize our readers as savvy small-business owners, marketers in companies of any size, and people who work in any of the multiple services that support social media efforts, such as advertising agencies, web developers, graphic design firms, copywriting, or public relations. We assume that you
Already have or will soon have a website or blog that can serve as the hub for your online marketing program
Are curious about ubiquitous social media
Are comfortable using search terms on search engines to find information online
Know the realities of your industry, though you may not have a clue whether your competitors use social media
Can describe your target markets, though you may not be sure whether your audience is using social media
Are trying to decide whether using social media makes sense for your company (or your boss has asked you to find out)
May already use social media personally and are interested in applying your knowledge and experience to business
May already have tried using social media for your company but want to improve results or measure return on your investment
Have a passion for your business, appreciate your customers, and enjoy finding new ways to improve your bottom line
If our assumptions are correct, this book will help you organize a social marketing presence without going crazy or spending all your waking hours online. It will help you figure out whether a particular technique makes sense, how to get the most out of it, and how to measure your results.
Icons Used in This Book
To make your experience easier, we use various icons in the margins to identify special categories of information.
