social voting
The biggest challenge small businesses face in promoting their products and services is to choose an advertising medium. The traditional advertising mediums such as radio and television cost way more than any small business can afford. A major reason why a large number of small businesses do not succeed, and many of them go out of business is the fact that they are not able to promote their brand, and find it hard to acquire customers. However, the revolution being brought by social media is going to change the game for small as well as medium-sized businesses in terms of reaching their potential customers.
Large enterprises have consistently outperformed small and medium-sized competitors by spending huge sums of money in advertising. Marketing budgets of large enterprises form a significant component of their overall budgets. Continuous and relentless ads on premium radio and television channels give them so much advantage over competitors that no one could challenge their established positions in the market space. But Social media is set to bring dramatic shifts in how small and medium businesses compete with their big brothers. The impact of social media as a marketing medium can be seen already. One of the most significant examples of how it can be leveraged to turn the tables on opponents is the last presidential campaign in the US, in which President Obama and his Vice Presidential candidate. They used Twitter, Face book and Digg to promote their agenda and reach common people, and the results surprised everyone. A little known senator is now the most powerful man in the world. Did social media really play such a big role?
Let’s understand the term social media…..many people are not able to define this term, even though they know that it will impact their lives in one way or another in the very near future. Social media is a term that covers technology e.g. blogs, forums, social bookmarks, social voting and online communities. Before implementing any form of social media, it is imperative for small businesses to define their objectives and their target market. The nature of products and services offered are also important in deciding how to use social media for promoting their brand. It needs to be understood that social media is not for everyone or to fix all your problems. If your business is struggling to survive, social media can’t fix your problems, it can only help in your marketing plan. If your problems are in other areas, try and fix those problems first.
Let’s understand the top social media platforms available to businesses, and how they can be leveraged as part of a marketing plan. Face book and Twitter are the most popular and significant platforms available to build and grow your followings. These sites are not primarily used for advertising, but to build following for your products and services. Face book does provide paid advertising option, but that’s not considered one of its main features.
If you are in a consulting business, they you are better off sharing your opinion writing articles and sharing views using blogs. Google’s blogger and Ezine articles are two significant tools to establish your credibility and authority over your subject.
If you have products that can be displayed then media-sharing sites such as Flickr and YouTube can hugely benefit by displaying pictures and videos of your products to your customers at no cost.
How you use the above mentioned media is an art and also a science. Get the right advice from professionals who understand social media, and also your business. Build a strategy, and document it before going on to executing it.
