Social Media
Per capita New Zealanders are amongst the largest users of online social media in the world. Local companies like Air New Zealand, Vodafone and Orcon have demonstrated that social media channels like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn can be very useful for marketing communications, customer service and also positively impact on brand. Social media marketing is simply means using any of the social networks including online communities, blogs and wikis for marketing, sales and public relations purposes.
SOCIAL MEDIA BENEFITS FOR BUSINESS
Affordable marketing
There’s no need for a large budget to conduct social media marketing
Viral nature
Users can easily share your messages with their friends with a click of a button
Enhances brand
Through social media you can build and enhance your online reputation
Builds credibility
User generated endorsements are more credibility than traditional advertising
Increases traffic
A well-planned social media strategy will drive more traffic to your website
Engages customers
Connect with your customers and respond to their feedback in real-time
WHY DELEGATE YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY TO A VIRTUAL ASSISTANT
You don’t have time
I can perform your daily, weekly and monthly social media tasks on time, every time.
You don’t have the knowledge
Hire a professional who has experience in social media and the background to know what works for which companies.
Contact me today to discuss a package to suit your business and budget.
SERVICES:
Social Media Strategy
Evaluation of your website, current social media and blog and strategy for the upcoming year.
Blogging
setup (if applicable) including links to your website and scheduled blog posts.
Article submissions
increase you online presence as an expert in your field
Repurpose existing content
articles can be turned into ebooks, autoresponder-delivered ecourses, other articles for content-sharing sites, blog posts.
RSS Pinging, Tweet, Facebook links, and other social bookmarking actions each time a blog post, article, video, or audio is posted.
Keyword or buzzword monitoring
Watching the social streams for your name or industry keywords and spotting business opportunities
Competition monitoring
See what your competition is doing on social networks
Reputation management
Watch for your name and report on any negative or positive conversations
Announcing new products, services, events
Managing friend requests
Checking emails and notifications and identifying important items for your follow-up
Looking for ideal connections in your target audience and requesting the connections
Search for and keep you informed of new features and functionality in the social sites you participate in
Online newsletters
Post newsletters using a web based program to all existing customers on a regular basis. Implement ‘join-up’ forms to encourage new subscription.
Link management - Listing your company on major and niche Directories
Who are the three big Social Media Players?
Facebook has more than 350,000,000 users, 50% of whom log on for an average of 55 minutes per day. Your clients may not be viewing your website every day, but the potential to reach a potentially massive audience with a daily status update on your Facebook page cannot be ignored.
Traditionally a social network base, Facebook’s fastest growing segment is now the business community.
Your clients don’t need to have a Facebook account, if you post a message on Twitter with a link, anyone can view your page.
With the pages indexed, if someone searches for your company online, this is one more link that will come up.
Facebook also has a statistics tool called Insight which reports on who your followers are, their age, language, sex and where they are located.
With 145,000,000 registered members, one of the fastest growing micro blogging platforms on the internet is Twitter. Using Twitter can help update potential and current customers on upcoming sales, events, blog posts and other information. You can also follow others in similar businesses to see what they are communicating about.
It is important not to simply ‘spam’ your followers. By participating in discussions, answering questions and offering information, you will gain more followers who will in turn visit your blog and/or site.
Now it’s the source of business leads and networking for thousands of people, and the source of the breaking world news for everyone. You need to be there.
Currently estimated at 80 million members, Linkedin is a must for professional networking. LinkedIn allows you to enter personal school, university and workplace history, suggesting connections with common backgrounds.
The group function allows you to setup, join and participate groups in your area of interest. There is also a question and answer area where you can ‘ask the experts’ or build your own reputation.
Limited spamming and a fantastic platform for building a professional business network.
Obviously, there are many others that you should evaluate, based on your geographic location, type of business, and personal interests. Here is my perspective on a few of them:
MySpace is for tweens, forget it. The third biggest site (just passed by Twitter) is MySpace, with about 95 million unique visitors per month. They have groups for business and entrepreneurs, but the culture is primarily teen and pre-teen. You will find business advertising there, but minimal business networking.
It’s not all about numbers. There are many more social networks which have good traction and a more specialized focus in the business networking world. Examples include Ryze, Plaxo, Orkut, RedWire, and Ecademy. In general, their membership is focused by geography, industry, or culture, so the value can be excellent.
Business networking today starts with social networks. Social networking sites are more effective and efficient than attending all those boring business cocktail mixers and conventions. I’ll even be so bold as to say that if you aren’t on any of these sites, you are way behind the curve in business networking today.
Protocols for each site are different. There is a hierarchy and a culture to social networking sites on the Internet, just like there always has been with professional business organizations and clubs. There are so many sites, so you need to choose wisely, and learn the rules for each. Most are free, so you can do serious business networking around the world without signing up for any of the fee services.
Related Blog Posts – Social Media
- Anatomy of a Blog Post: Writing Blogs Using Templates 03/02/2012
- Coping with Information Overload Using Google Reader 10/01/2012
- 6 Ways to Update Your LinkedIn Profile 14/11/2011
- How will a Google Plus brand page benefit my small business? 11/11/2011
- Asking a virtual assistant to manage social media would be a big mistake.. 10/10/2011
- How Real Estate Agents Can Benefit By Using a Virtual Assistant 29/09/2011
- Social Networking Exposed 21/06/2011
- So...Do You Blog? 03/05/2011
- The Engaged Web in New Zealand 09/04/2011
- How to Use RSS Feeds 03/04/2011
