The DaniWeb guide to social media marketing campaigns

Updated happygeek 7 Tallied Votes 1K Views Share

There can be no denying the impact that social media has had on business, you only have to look at the reach it has: well over a billion people between Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn subscribers. What's more, there is no sign of the social media bubble bursting just yet.

socmedtutorial However, social media is actually much more than just a numbers game and in order for any marketing campaign to succeed then businesses simply have to understand how to embrace it properly. Indeed, the potential for extending the reach of your business and your brand has never been bigger. The time for action is now, but jumping onto the social media bandwagon without first doing your homework and making careful preparation is just inviting the wheels to fall off your campaign. And that means constructing a relevant and worthy social media marketing strategy.

DaniWeb has already covered how social video plays a key role in online advertising campaigns so I won't bother going over that same ground again. Likewise, DaniWeb has detailed why buying social media reviews is a recipe for disaster when it comes to any sensible marketing campaign that expects customer retention and brand longevity.

What we haven't done so far is compile a basic list of social media marketing campaign tips, until now...

Think of social media networks as marketing channels and match your products to those which are appropriate. The scattergun approach of simply throwing your efforts into the conversational mix without any thought about audience is asking for trouble. You will more likely alienate potential customers rather than attract them by choosing the wrong networks or adding negatively to the signal to noise ratio within the right ones.

Understand the channels you use, and tailor your marketing campaigns accordingly. Facebook isn't the best place for small snippets of news or conversation, that's what Twitter is best at. Likewise, Twitter isn't the place for in-depth customer engagement and involvement via link sharing, event promotion, product photography and the like, that's what Facebook is good at. Both are great for customer support, while LinkedIn isn't. If you want somewhere to further your business-to-business connections, to increase awareness of your whole business within your market sector, then LinkedIn is the place to go.

Don't forget that the 'big three' are not the be all and end all of social media. Google+ should be ignored at your peril, especially as it enables you to very carefully target your campaigns courtesy of being very much interest group led. Likewise, the same can be said of sites such as Tumblr and Pinterest. However, at the same time it is vital that you do no bite off more than you can chew. Which brings me back to my original point: choose your channels carefully. If you create accounts at every social media outlet you can think of, and then allow many of those accounts to sit there doing nothing because you can only devote a finite amount of time to your campaigns and have to prioritize your efforts, then what you end up with are numerous signposts indicating that your brand, your products and your business are dormant and stale.

Perhaps the single most important tip that can be offered is to hammer home the point that when it comes to social media the clue is in the name: it's a SOCIAL medium, so interaction is the key to success. Whatever channels you open within the social media sphere, you simply must put the effort into your interactions to ensure that your customers and potential customers feel part of your business family rather than apart from it. It's harking back to that 'never abandon a channel' mantra, because if you go quite, if you don't respond to queries, if you don't maintain the conversation then onlookers feel abandoned by your business and in turn will abandon you. If you want to convert conversations into custom, then you have to have those conversations in the first place. This really isn't rocket science folks! So be pro active, don't wait for others to ask the questions you can answer but instead provoke the conversation yourself, without stumbling into the realm of the social media spammer where everything is product led. Social media marketing is a balance between those two things, social media and marketing. Get the balance right and your campaigns will succeed.

canadafred 220 SEO Alumni Team Colleague Featured Poster

That's really good advice. I think you may have understated the need for a powerful Google+ presence. A G+ Business Page is branded to the web site and the Google Business Listing. Business listings will likely play a more important role in the results pages over time. It's good to get entrenched early. I like incorporating blogger which autogenerates Google+ posts.

SJaved7 0 Junior Poster in Training

Google plus is really a good way to pormote the site.Using Google plus you can promote your business locally and Internationally too, Google plus is rapidly growing and more effective way to gain the traggeted traffic.I would like to thank to your for making the efforts to writing great tips the better usage of the socicl media sites to promote your business.

halenmartinez 0 Junior Poster in Training

social media channel are use for brand awareness and promotion, but its to much time getting. But using social channels are worth it

queenbearn 0 Newbie Poster

Thereis a huge reach in social networking. It all depends on your product and what kind of people you have in your circles.

skipmanchester 0 Newbie Poster

yes canadafred I am agree with you. This advice is too good. I am searching around to read such kind of social media information. But I ever found difficult to place reviews for the website. Let me know anyone if you know good site for putting reviews to promote our website.

halenmartinez 0 Junior Poster in Training

i think social media can only help your product for branding, you can generate any business lead from it. If it doesn't can anybody share his or her experience with me.

skinhairsurgery 0 Newbie Poster

With the help of social media marketing you can promote your site using different strategies like PPC ad campaigns,getting more likes etc.

Tofayel -1 Newbie Poster

Social media is now most popular way of marketing. But we have to know proper use of social media.

JasonJamie 0 Newbie Poster

Search engines like google is an excellent way to pormote the website. Using Search engines plus you can enhance your company regionally and Worldwide too, Search engines do really increases the efficiency and also the page rank of your site .

JasonJamie 0 Newbie Poster

Public networking route are used for product attention and marketing, but its to much time to be getting. But using public programs are really valuing it.

JasonJamie 0 Newbie Poster

Facebook or myspace is one of the best public networking website for those who are well professaional and not to add, discuss to any of people who are not realted to his company.

yolande 0 Newbie Poster

Google+ huh? Does it work well for any of you guys? I use it too but it seems kind of boring so I mainly think of it as another source for backlinks to my backlinks.

analyzea 0 Light Poster

If you think Only social site are mian frame work for this then your are wrong at some extent ,some other things like good sharing and knowldge sharing is basic thing for your social media promotions .

Chris_tax 0 Newbie Poster

I think the key is creating a presence for your business. My clients are locals. People spend an hour a day on facebook. Advertising and contacting your target market is the key. Facebook is one of many marketing tools I use. I am right adding more local friends to Facebook.

ruby_ms 0 Newbie Poster

I agree with you. social media marketing is very important.

winstanleyf1 0 Newbie Poster

I think google+ is a great way to brand or author your site, not sure if it has value as far as traffic is concerned, but its an important too that should not be over looked!

Chris_tax 0 Newbie Poster

I can not stress the imporatnce of Facebook enough. Example, Obama used it very effectively to get re-elected. You have to allocate time everyday on Facebook buliding relationships.

growfast 0 Newbie Poster

Yes offcourse social media networks are the best way to promote your business online..

niktar75 commented: But spamming is alarming!! +0
Giles Ensor 0 Newbie Poster

Not sure about facebook being so important anymore. I agree every company should have a FB page but I wonder if it will be true in 5 - 10 years. I teach as well as do social media marketing and one thing I've noticed is that the amount of students (13 to 18 age range) who are following the school I work for on Twitter is 3 times more than facebook. Be interesting to see how facebook's demographics change in the next few years.

Christine99 0 Newbie Poster

Facebook is best in all social media marketing platforms as compare to Twitter, google plus etc as have more features. It is more easy to use and share things than other social networking sites.

jayshri.shah.10 0 Newbie Poster

I think Facebook is more better than google+..but we can't ignore twitter too.

GregoryPresley 0 Newbie Poster

Really great topic about the socialmedia i am really intersted about the topic
if we need to rebuild our business googleplus and articles is the main points to make our site more stronger and social media like facebook is a most important tricks thanks for your nice topic in this forum site.

mayaestat 0 Posting Whiz in Training

I promote my business more on Social Media, because search engine wont provide me so much business than Social Media. I get Quick response by advertising my product on social media platforms.

Nmalik1 6 Junior Poster in Training

Great, this is complete guide for making the better use of the social media sites for driving traffic.

Smitha Nayak 0 Newbie Poster

I can not stress the imporatnce of Facebook enough. Example, Obama used it very effectively to get re-elected. You have to allocate time everyday on Facebook buliding relationships.

ahqaf 0 Newbie Poster

Thanks for sharing this important topics with me.....

sakir_1 0 Newbie Poster

facebook is better then others social networking site

John_60 0 Newbie Poster

Thanks for sharing a info.

rjdoll99 0 Light Poster

i 100% agreed from this article and this is such a nice information

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