For a business, big or small, to be successful, effective marketing is important. While the main purpose of marketing is to help a business grow, businesses should consider using marketing through social media as a way to connect and get involved with their community. Think about the businesses in your community. Would you rather support a business that cares about and is connected to the community or would rather support a business that just wants to make a profit off of you and your community?
As a business owner, if you want to have more of a presence and strengthen your connection to your community, here are some social networking apps to consider:
Google Analytics
If you want to get “in touch” with your community, it’s a good idea to make sure that your community even knows that you exist. If you have a website or a blog, Google Analytics will help you see how many visitors are visiting your site, how long they’re there, and where they are located. Once you’ve taken a good look at your data, you can make any changes to your website in order to gain the audience you hope to have.
There are hundreds of social networking apps to choose from, but if you want to get connected to your community, you need to use apps that “everyone” is using and right now, everyone appears to still be using Facebook. Facebook works for many types of businesses for numerous reasons. Not only is it an easy way to connect with varying demographics in your community, but you, as a business, may seems more approachable and more like a friend. However, to get an active and engaging following, you’ll have to be attentive. The number of people who visit site are your customers. For example, if you’re participating in a local food drive and want your customers to get involved, use Facebook to advertise and update the progress. You may also want to consider offering incentives or personal “thank you” when customers get involved.
Another great feature about Facebook is that businesses can personally (and publicly) respond to customer/client complaints, praise, and feedback. When you take the time to engage in a “discussion” with your customers, your community will notice and react positively if you do it right.
Instagram or Vine
Ever feel “connected” to someone after you watch a video or see pictures (even if you don’t know the person)? If you have a visual presence, as a business, you may seem more real and just like your customers. Take pictures of your customers, your products, and even your volunteer work around the community. Make a Vine if your business team has an important message to share, is volunteering, or even just want to show the lighter and funnier side of your business. Words can be powerful, images can be even more so.
Much like Facebook, Twitter is a popular way to get and stay connected to people in your community and prospective customers/clients and like Facebook, if you want to have a good following, you need to tweet well & often. Depending on the audience you hope to reach your social networking apps may differ from the ones listed above, but your main goal, as a business, is to find a way to get connected to your customer/client base and make them feel like they are seen, heard, and understood