ace it, Social Media Marketing is THE way that most savvy marketers convey their message to an insatiable, hungry audience. If you’re not using social media marketing platforms like Google, LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, iTunes, Twitter or WordPress, your prospects have virtually no way of finding you on the Internet. And how long can you let THAT go on?

Social media marketing is one of the simpler ways to connect and become involved with your audience.

When you listen to your audience, acknowledge them and their participation in your business, you’ll find that they become more loyal, and champions for your business.

Do you know that more than ninety-five percent of Internet users use online searches when they’re researching YOU? And 45,000,000 Americans have cell phones with Internet capabilities. FaceBook and Twitter have over 700,000,000 members and they’re growing like mad. Shouldn’t you be where these people are looking?

Ask yourself these questions:

Are you easy to find online? And not just by your name. Can they find you by the keywords/terms/phrases that best represent you and your business, service or product?

When your audience visits their favorite online places, will they find YOU? Or will they find your competition?

And once they connect with you, do you already have a program in place where you can engage with them over and over again?

Do you have a plan to start using cell phone marketing?

If the answer to any of these questions is “NO,” you’ve got to ask yourself “WHY NOT?” If you want to keep a viable business, marketing online is a must, because the majority of your competitors are, or will be shortly.

Here are five ways that social media marketing can help you improve your relationship with your clients and to turn them into your biggest fans, because NOTHING is more powerful than a client coming through a referral.

Social media marketing helps you understand your prospects, convert more of them into clients, and then help them becoming your biggest fans.

1. Be Social

Remember, it’s called “SOCIAL MEDIA” for a reason. Never before in history has social media marketing made it so easy to communicate with your prospects, and clients, for such a small investment. And you can, and should, communicate with them over and over again. That’s not to say you should email, text, snail mail or call them every day. You’ll find out soon enough what a good communication interval will be- your audience will tell you! People buy from companies they know, like and trust.

An effective Facebook, Twitter, blogging, and email campaign will give you numerous opportunities to let your audience get to know you, begin to like you, learn to trust you, and develop an on-going beneficial relationship.

Consistent and frequent communication is key, as with any important relationship. Social media marketing makes this possible.

2. You Simply Must Produce Your Own Videos For Social Media Marketing

As of 2011, YouTube is the 2nd largest search engine. (YouTube gets over 1 BILLION views per day!) Viewers are going to YouTube for solutions to their problems, looking for videos that’ll show them how to do something, and researching reviews on a product or service.

You must develop a presence there. Create your own YouTube channel and begin posting videos with solutions, how-to’s, and training, etc. You can use a Digital Video Camcorder, or even easier is a Flip Video Camera, or Kodak ZI-8, and now the Kodak ZI-10. (We prefer the ZI-10 because it has an external mic input which allows use of a lavalier mic to get better sound.) All of these cameras shoot in HD, and render incredible-looking videos. Editing tools like Screenflow for the Mac, Sony Vegas Movie Studio, CyberLink’s PowerDirector and even Windows Movie Maker can help you make very cool looking videos.

To give you an idea of what I’m talking about, here is a video we recently produced.

3. Be creative with your Social Media Marketing platforms

This growing collection of Social Media marketing platforms offer numerous opportunities for growing your business through branding. Here are just a few ideas to get your creative juices flowing:

* Get pens made up with your Twitter username (@_______), or with a request to “Connect With Me On Facebook.” There’s a subtle, friendlier feel a person experiences when they get a pen with a Social Media aspect to it rather than a pen with just your company name on it.

* You could do the same with coffee cups/mugs, and the whole advertising specialty realm. Be “social”- have a “meeting” at your business and give attendees their coffee mug in person.

* Make a monthly video and at the end of it, ask viewers to follow you on Twitter or “friend” you on Facebook. Remember to add the Facebook “Like” button to all your pages.

* Include your social media contact information in the signature of your emails and in the Resource Box at the bottom of the articles you write and distribute.

4. Create Your Own Social Network Site

Believe it or not, you can now create your very own Social Network site- in almost no time at all. Two of the better known platforms are Ning.com and SocialGo.com.

At Ning, a fast growing number of political groups, musicians, entertainers and well-known brands find this social networking platform useful. Ellen Degeneres has her own site, as do Hershey’s Chocolate, Martha Stewart, National Republican Congressional Committee and the Epilespy Foundation, just to name a few.

SocialGO calls itself the “social network maker.” They’re based in the UK and offer free and premium plans for building a social network. Some of their customers include: LEVI Strauss, The Apple Store, Walmart, and Random House Publishing.

One nice feature that SocialGO offers is their “live video chat sidebar.” You can dial up a member and chat with them live through the site.

5. Increase Your Brand Exposure And Build Customer Loyalty

Social media marketing, and the Internet, is probably the quickest way a company can build brand loyalty. (Conversely, one of the quickest ways to destroy it, too.) Because you have the potential to reach so many people so quickly, online word-of-mouth can spread your name, business, product and/or service around the world in a matter of minutes.

If you’ve taken good care of your customers, they’re more likely to tell their friends through Twitter, Facebook, their blogs, a personal YouTube video, articles, social bookmarking sites, podcasts, webinars and so on. Since these are the places your customers visit, shouldn’t you be there when they visit? Imagine the potential of having all those people in your corner singing your praises.

When marketing on the Internet, for many businesses it doesn’t matter if you’re local, regional, nationwide or international- you can reach your audience for a fraction of what it costs using “traditional” marketing. Yes, it’s going to take a fair amount of work to develop these social media marketing campaigns, but you would have been doing similar work for traditional marketing. Now, your reach is exponentially greater, with the most important added benefit- you’ll begin having a conversation with your audience. You can’t do that with postcards, magazine ads, expensive four-color catalogs, or even radio and TV advertising.

Social Media Marketing will not improve your bottom line overnight. But if used effectively, you’ll begin to see a momentum shift in your business, and who knows, maybe one of your videos, article or podcasts will go “viral.” Wouldn’t that be nice?

Which social media marketing vehicles have you used? Which ones were most effective? Could you share one of your successes?

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You can download a PDF version of this Social Media Marketing Report. Click Here!