Similar to anything that you do with your business, there is potential for positive and negative outcomes through each decision that you make.  The deciding factor as to whether or not your company succeeds is your ability to be prepared and understand both sides of the coin (per se).  Today, you can have a glimpse as the pro’s and con’s of social media marketing as well as an insider’s look at a Facebook marketing campaign.

What To Watch For During The Social Media Campaign

The largest obstacle when starting or maintaining a social media marketing campaign is the idea of people constantly watching every move that you make.  In other words, some businesses owners may feel as though their personal life is too connected to their work life to establish an effective and efficient SMM campaign.  However, with the advanced privacy settings and ability to create professional profiles or pages on each of the social media sites, this problem becomes more of a blessing as you have the opportunity to specify which information you want displayed.  So, even if someone were to “tag” you in a picture on Facebook, that would not be displayed to the public unless you allow it.

The second argument that people, in general, use to avoid social media is the idea of identity theft and account hacking.  With social media, the personal information that you have available to your audience is utterly your choice.  Some people, while they want to be involved in social media marketing and (consequently) social networking, they also do not want to share a significant amount of information online.  The good news is that most of the social networking platforms are moving towards a secured socket website that secures all of the information and interactions with the site.

A third reason for businesses avoiding social media marketing is the idea that either they or their employee(s) managing the social media will become addicted to the internet.  To be honest, if you aren’t already an avid internet user then you will not be an avid internet user.  However, if you use the web throughout the course of the day, I am almost positive that you have taken sidebar browses across various news sites, special interest sites, sports webcasts, or just plain old slap-stick jokes.  It’s good in the sense that it’s not an addiction, but what it is relates to the ease of use for each of the social networking platforms.  So, yes, while catching up with your high school and/or college friends, the only thing addicting is your desire to get away from work for 5 or 10 minutes.

And finally, the fourth road block that people run into is in regard to potential background checks during job searches.  Yes, while everything that you put on the internet is (for all intents and purposes) there to stay, its as simple as using discretion.  In other words, if you are trying to maintain a professional reputation, only publish content within your social network that encourages your audience to believe you to be that industry professional.  You have the opportunity to think about what you are going to say before you post; edit your tone, verbiage, images, and grammar/punctuation.  Remember, take the time to get it right before you broadcast it to your sphere of influence.  Another great suggestion (when you are entering the job market) is to review your social network updates and content to ensure that your image is what you want it to be.

What to Enjoy with Social Media Marketing

Because there is a lengthy list of benefits that come with the use of social media in your integrated marketing campaigns, here is a quick list of some of the top benefits you can/will experience with an efficient social media marketing strategy:

  • Extended Reach — In comparison to traditional marketing, you have the unique opportunity to reach beyond your geographic area and truly extend your area of business (and, therefore, your revenue stream).  Utilize the power of blogs, Facebook pages, and professional social media profiles to reach out to a more in-depth audience.
  • Build Brand — With the emphasis on delivering your company’s message to a larger audience, there is a direct relationship with building brand loyalty through status updates, interactions, and sharing content that effectively delivers that message.  In addition to enhancing loyalty, if you are responsive to industry feedback you will become the trusted industry professional and benefit significantly from the increased online reputation.
  • Listening Ears On — Social media isn’t just for you and your business to get your message out, but its also a great way for your current clients to deliver their feedback to you quickly and with great impact.  With the feedback, you can handle any customer service issues, make alterations to your product/service that people are saying they need, and you are also able to truly encourage an open line of communication between business and consumer.
  • Easy Diagnostic Reporting — As a business owner, the last thing that you want to do is run another report that you have to go through with a fine tooth comb.  The good news is that with a majority of social network platforms you have immediate access to your visitor demographics and statistics.  So, you can easily have access to information that you need (and want) to make improvements to your social media campaign.
  • More Bang for Your Buck — One of the more obvious benefits is the fact that social media marketing does not cost you nearly as much as traditional marketing.  This, of course, provides more of a bottom-line benefit as the return you receive is greater than what you would have gotten through traditional marketing efforts.

Safely and Efficiently Manage Your Facebook Profile

Now, if you’ve decided to go ahead with a social media marketing campaign, one of the more popular platforms to realize great results is Facebook.  Here are some tips to maintain privacy and move forward with a great SMM strategy.

  • Stranger Danger, Only Friends — With Facebook, you can go through your account tab and into ‘Privacy Settings’ to edit who will be able to view your information.  Remember that if this is a personal profile that you want more privacy, but if it’s a professional profile then you have the opportunity to share a little more.
  • Organize with Lists — Take the time to go through your contacts and organize them in ‘Friend Lists’.  This will give you the opportunity specify which of your friends have access to certain information.  In other words, if you are utilizing a personal profile for your business profile as well, you have a unique opportunity to separate your contacts into different groups to allow for more control over your policy.
  • Protect from Personalization — Because of Facebook’s rapidly expanding an uniquely venture-capitalistic nature, your public information (that  you set) on your If you are not comfortable with companies digging through your profile, go to Account/Privacy Settings/ Applications and Websites/, click Edit Setting beside Instant Personalization Pilot Program and uncheck the box.

A line from Field of Dreams, “If you build it….they will come”.  I don’t truly agree with that structure, but I am a full believer (and implementor) in the utter power and sheer efficiency of a great social media campaign.  So, if you need a helping hand with your social media marketing don’t hesitate to contact us or leave a comment below.

Need Help?

If social media marketing is something that you are interested in but don’t know how to get started, contact us today to schedule your free marketing analysis.

Sources:
“The Essential Step-by-Step Guide to Internet Marketing”-E-Book
SlideShare.net
Image Source: HubSpot, “The 2011 State of Inbound Marketing”, E-Marketer.com