I recently ran across an article about how social media can be a sinkhole for real estate (agents) – a very interesting article that really stated what I have been thinking about for years. The article spoke about how real estate agents are spending hours and hours a day on Facebook really without any results. Although this article was specifically targeted towards the real estate market, it really touched on a few issues that I’ve been thinking about for years. Is social media good or bad for your business?

Ever since the success of MySpace, I always wondered how beneficial and valuable social networking was. I questioned whether or not it was worth getting involved with. It wasn’t only until a few years back that I realized the great potential for social media. I was going after a job with Cars.com and during the interview process; one of the hiring managers read a blog post of mine and mentioned how impressed they were with my thought process. I ended up getting the job. At that point, I realized that social media can truly be of great value to your brand – but only if done correctly.

The challenges I see facing businesses today is how to effectively do social media. As I always mention to my clients, your social media marketing initiatives should to be strategic. If you’re a small business, it’s easy to mix both personal and business profiles all in one. Whether you’re on Facebook, Myspace or Twitter, you need to remember what you are doing in that social media space. Are you there spending most of your time focusing on personal issues while ignoring your core target audience? Or are you there with the correct approach of connecting with potential customers, promoting your product/services, generating trust and building brand awareness?

How to do Social Media Marketing Right!

Although social media marketing involves many moving parts and can be done in a variety of ways – always remember that social media should only be an integrated component to your existing marketing plan. It should not be your primary tool/source for generating and acquiring customers. The last time I checked, people aren’t using facebook for their primary source for shopping, etc., no, they use facebook to chat and connect with friends. People still generally search Google, Yahoo and MSN when looking to purchase something online.

Social Media is a platform, not a tactic. Social media is highly valuable for creating transparency, building trust, promoting your products/services, building back-links and increasing organic search engine ranking – which eventually all leads to increasing sales and revenue overall.

Contact ML Web Consulting Today!

If you’re a small business owner and you’re interested in getting involved with social media marketing or would love to chat with someone about how to get started, contact us today. We offer social media marketing services and would love to work with you one-on-one to help you create a strategic marketing plan to help boost and grow your business.