Some people see the internet as a magical place where you can find literally everything. Information is becoming increasingly available to everyone and we are starting to use the internet for almost everything. Communication, entertainment, organization, shopping are just of the examples of what can be accomplished on the internet.
Why is this important for your business to be on the internet? Exposure – plain and simple. There are very few “boarders” on the Web and you basically have the entire world at your disposal, if you play your cards right. There isn’t a single media in the history of our civilization that has had so much presence in our lives like the Internet. On top if it all, mobile devices that we can use to browse the web are getting better and better so this means that people are online all the time.
Things have changed so much that even the word of mouth travels differently. If you want to get people talking about your business there is no better place to do this than social networks.
What are the most popular social networks?
I’m not going to bore you with statistics, like how many users they have – you can find those all over the web. Instead, I’m going to tell you how they differ from one another and how to use them properly to promote your brand.
This is a casual social network people use to chat with their friends and share content that they deem interesting. You can start promoting yourself by opening a Facebook Business Fan Page. By sharing content that is related to your industry niche you will keep your fans involved and interested. They can also re-share that content and bring you more fans, since you can always trace the source of the post back to its original owner.
Twitter is a more update-oriented social network so you will need to be short and sweet. You can gain followers by following tweets that are related to the type of business you are in. It is important that you keep close contact with your followers and that you interact with them in terms of answering their questions and re-tweeting when they mention you and so on.
Google+
Google’s social network, which is seriously challenging Facebook for the throne of the social networking kingdom, has the same casual atmosphere that Facebook has but it gives you a couple of neat new options. For example you can separate your fans in different circles and choose what to share with them depending on their age, the amount of commitment – even their nationality. You can also host video hangouts, to share interesting tips with them and so on.
No matter what branch of industry you are in, you have to have a LinkedIn profile. This is the most professional business social network out there. It gives you a straight forward way to get connected with potential new clients and it does all this in a highly professional environment. Clients can also recommend your business and thus help you promote yourself as someone who is professional and reliable.
The almighty content
There are a lot more social networks you can use in order to build up your brand, get new customers, create a stronger relationship with the old ones, but in order to achieve your goal, you should be aware of a couple of things. First of all, you need to remain consistent when you promote yourself. Do not do one thing on one social network and something completely opposite on another. Consistency is what builds up a brand in general and it is not different here, whatsoever. Content is also very important. You need to have quality and original content people cannot get anywhere else, so that you can attract followers, likes, fans or whatever the term may be on your social network of choice. Try to find something that works for you, find a tone, an attitude and stick to it in all your posts and, finally, try to transfer this attitude to your content.
Image courtesy of Wikimedia
