With one-third of the world has already having access to the Internet, social media has become mainstream as global interactions becomes increasingly integrated. Social media is defined as the collection of online communication channels dedicated to community-based input, interaction, content sharing and collaboration.
Did you catch that? In layman’s terms social media are online networks where people can share information with each other.
Websites and applications dedicated to forums, micro-blogging, social networking and social bookmarking, are among the different types of social media. The most popular ones are Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and Blogs (The Social Media Report, 2012 by Nielsen). To increase the effectiveness of Inbound Marketing*, social media is essential in:
- Increasing Inbound leads at a low cost
- Expanding reach of leadership content
- Engaging with prospects
- Better understanding, identifying, and targeting potential buyers
- Improving customer service and satisfaction
- Enhancing the effectiveness of outbound campaign programs
When it comes to Inbound Marketing success, social media becomes of paramount importance. It is also a powerful money making tool and it has has been proven to increase website visitors, to help convert more leads and to drive more customers.
But there are several things to consider:
- Who to target?
- How to target?
- Which networks are best for your audience?
Here are few things you can do to get closer to fulfilling the above-mentioned criteria.
Facebook/Twitter:
- Promoting your upcoming events and news in Facebook, will attract the customers to participate or share the events.
- Increasing the number of posts in Facebook will keep your customers involved with your products.
- Engaging your fans in Facebook and Twitter with interesting videos and graphics, creative content and pleasing invitations will enhance Inbound marketing.
- The content is the utmost priority in Twitter. Promoting relevant contents and building rapport will encourage other Twitter users to follow your company as well as tweet your contents.
LinkedIn
- A group can be created in LinkedIn and be used as a channel to engage customers, or you can join groups that are related to your business niche. Either way, your engagement, participation and value-adding posts will be easily seen and acknowledged by like-minded group members, thus your presence will gain acceptance.
Blogging
- The blog posts will increase the recognition of the concepts and ideas that are published by your company. Your blogging activity takes your news forward to readers and followers, thereby aligning potential customers' interest towards your products/services.
Youtube
- Create a YouTube channel and regularly upload videos, be they informative, entertaining, enriching etc. to gain the attention of your prospects and customers
In a nutshell, Social media helps Inbound Marketing to:
- Build relationships
- Offer quality customer service
- Expand the reach of your marketing
- Giving your brand a human persona
* Inbound marketing is a form of digital marketing that involves SEO, Social Media, blog and landing pages to generate sales leads.
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