Before you start you will have to accept that this is part of running a business and is as important as other aspects such as bookkeeping, sales or customer relations. We all make time for such tasks and your social media marketing tasks are no different.

So let’s take a look at something’s you can do to be successful with your social media marketing.

1. Finding the best outlets – There are many options here and not every business is a good fit for each outlet. So how do you choose? A good place to start is to ask yourself where are your customers? Where are your competitors? Do not try to do too many all at once. As your business grows you can add others into your marketing mix. Just because you heard blogging is a great way to generate leads does not mean it is a good fit for you and your business. Start simple and small and grow into it.

2. Building your Audience – once you have chosen your outlet of choice you want to take time to build a solid foundation. Having likes, followers etc. for the sheer numbers is never a good idea. Paying a 3^rd party for thousands of likes or followers will only give you numbers. They will never interact or engage with you and chances are they are not the ease bit interested in your product or service. So start with friends, business associates, family and most importantly your current customers.

3. Create Great Content – You will spend most of your time creating your content for posts. This is an ongoing process. The best approach is to plan things out and to think ahead. Set aside time for this. Get a calendar and plan out for the week what you want to talk about. Then chose how you want to say it. Are you going to create a graphic, use a video?? Allow time for research. Anything you can think of has already be said and you can find it on the internet but people have not heard it from you. Find out what is it people that want to know as it relates to your business. Do not repeat what has already bee said but do use your own words to tell your story. People relate to things differently and there are people who will relate to what you have to say.

4. Create a Plan or Strategy – this is ever evolving and you should review it often. Every plan and strategy starts with goals and identifying what you want to achieve. Sales is a given and this is actually a long term result. So on your calendar you can plot out what you are going post, where you are posting it and when you are posting it. Does this one week at a time in the beginning. Start simple and do not over complicate it.

5. Be Authentic – What makes social media marketing so great is that it gives potential and current customers a chance to engage and interact with you. You have the opportunity to develop a personable relationship with your audience. People do business with you, not your brand and as such they do so with those they know, like and trust. When you are authentic you are building that trust and creating a sense that they know you.

6. Educate Yourself – just as you educated yourself as to other aspects of running your business you will want to do the same with your social media marketing. There is a wealth of information available just by doing some searching. Learn all that you can but do not get over zealous and try to do too much all at once. When you and your business are ready for the next step then and only then should you take that step.

We hope that these tips guide you in the direction of being successful with your social media marketing. Please feel free to share some tips of your own with us.

Be sure to like our page on Facebook for more tips and other information to help you be more successful with your social media marketing. You can find us at the Social Media Bootcamp on Facebook.

The post Tips for Successful Social Media Marketing for the Beginner appeared first on Whats Up SWFL.

1. Posts do not relate to their business. Ok I know what you are thinking. You read or were told that you should not post about your business on your business page. Read that again and hear how silly that sounds. What they were talking about were overly promotional posts, which we will get to a bit later. We have seen pages where after being asked to like the page, we have no clue what their business is about, why we would want to use their business or even recommend it. What they were doing were posting quotes, good morning type posts, happy day type posts all the time. Nothing that would tell us what they were about. Solution – If you are going to post quotes, they need to make sense for your business. Post tips about your business that share your knowledge. Post pictures of you doing something that relates to your business. Use humor and search for cartoon or visual jokes that relate to your business.

2. Repeating the same post. We see this often where once or twice a week, they are posting the same picture, the same content using the exact same text. This is boring to your audience. These posts also tend to be promotional posts for a product or service and they are repeated frequently. Depending on how many times a day or week you are posting you want to limit promotional posts to 10% – 20%. Solution – Keep your content fresh by using different media’s such a pictures, video’s, articles, humor, asking questions, fun facts, trivia….it is best to plan it out so that you keep your content fresh and interesting.

3. Posts of pictures with no text content included. This is the equivalent of handing somebody a flier and walking away. We have all experienced that at one time or another. This happens a lot when people share a picture, video etc and they do not lend to the post their own voice. We see others that have a great picture, graphic, video etc and they just post it without giving the reader an idea of what it is and how it relates to your business. You are doing yourself and your business a real disservice as you are not allowing others to build trust with you. It also does not encourage a conversation or engagement. Solution – Remember Facebook is about being social. If you want engagement then you are going to have to talk. So be sure you lend your voice to each post even when sharing other’s content.

What all this really boils down to is that if you are doing your own Facebook Marketing you need to educate yourself as to best practices. Then try them and monitor the results. You need to have a plan, a strategy. There are no shortcuts, no easy way to be successful. It takes time, thought and creativity. You have to allot time in your schedule for this.

We are offering a free consult. We will review your Facebook page and give you some tips that will help you be more successful. Just leave us a comment with a link to your page and share with us your challenges.

The post 3 Common Facebook Marketing Mistakes appeared first on Whats Up SWFL.

However there are something’s you should keep in mind when participating in a group. When you go to a networking event, you certainly do not share your information, hand out your cards and then leave right? You engage in conversations of some sort and the same hold true for groups. It is not what you are sharing but how you are sharing it that makes all the difference.

You want to be sure to talk to your fellow members and not at them. Just as you participate in networking groups in person, you want to do that same in the Facebook groups. Your fellow members may not know you let alone your business. You want them to get to know you first as people do business with people they know like and trust. You can have the best product or service in the world but if the members do not know you they will not give your business much thought.

Many times you see people promoting their products or services in these groups. While groups are great for this, it is not the only thing you should be doing. Start a conversation or ask questions as a way to get to know the other members. Respond to others conversations or questions even if you do not know that member.
Don’t get discouraged if other members do not respond at first. It takes time for people to get to know you. There is great potential to meet new people with which to build a relationship with. Groups are great for this.
So when participating in Facebook groups don’t lose site of the power it has for building relationships. The business you gain will naturally flow from there. Then when you do share a promotion about your product or service it will gain more attention because now the members now know you better.

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