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December 26, 2011 In Marketing, Social Media

Develop Marketing Strategies with Social Media

Have you been wondering what you can do to boost your online brand in the upcoming year? While it may be hard to believe that it’s resolution time again. The fact is that most businesses have been looking at their existing marketing efforts for 2011 and are all busy planning changes and upgrades to their online marketing plans for 2012. As Social Media continues to penetrate every aspect of everyday life, businesses that have been laid back about their Social Media Marketing, (SMM), are seeing their more aggressive competitors build on the one-on-one interactivity of the social media space to the benefit of their brands.

2011 Growth Leads to Better Marketing Opportunities

Social media marketing grew exponentially throughout 2011 As we see in statistics from the Content Marketing Institute:

“Marketers are using social media more frequently

As we saw last year, Twitter is the most popular social media channel with content marketers. Every social media channel is seeing increased adoption, often by 15-20%:

  • YouTube: 47% increase
  • LinkedIn: 39% increase
  • Twitter: 35% increase
  • Facebook: 30% increase”

As user volume continues to increase on all of these social media sites as was seen in a recent report from Socialnomics, companies need to realize that to reach their target market where they live, a social media presence is a necessity now.

But I’m a B2B Company, How Can Social Media Work for Me?

This is a common question from Social Media curious clients. With the addition of Google+ to the B2B Social Media party, and the ongoing successes of LinkedIn, Facebook FAN pages, and Twitter for B2B brand building, the B2B set is continuing to see results in the Social Media space. TopRankBlog.com submitted several reports recently on B2B Social Media trends for 2011 noting the benefits and tools available to businesses. B2B businesses dubious about the effectiveness of Social Media Marketing should take a look at the reports and results here.

A few highlights from the reports:

  • Facebook Is on a Trajectory to Become a Mainstream Media Platform.
  • No company is too small to blog. At a recent content marketing event at Schwartz, Ann Handley of MarketingProfs.com pointed to an owner of a small pool business in Virginia who has attracted a lot of attention and business from his blog. (http://www.slideshare.net/HeuvelMarketing/b2-b-tech-marketing-and-social-media)
  • More than 10 million users create 1,500 new “tweets” every second

If You Do Something, Do It Well

As we noted in the title, Social Media Marketing is a great 2012 gift for your brand. That being said, the key phrase in our title is “Done Well”. That means approaching your business’s social media marketing with the same detail with which you approach any other marketing plan. Do your market research to find out where your target market lives in the SMM space, see what they’re talking about, and then reach out to meet their needs through regular posts, comments, shares, and comments.

So, as you assess your marketing budget for 2012, consider the effects that Social Media Marketing could have on your bottom line, and begin having your own conversation with your target market.

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