Time to Get Real

The end is near. The end of 2012 that is. This is a great time to reflect on how your business has done in the last year and to set some goals for next year.

Is your Social Media campaign all it can be? Do you have a realistic Social Media Strategy in place? Is it time to hire a Social Media Manager? Can you afford one? Can you afford NOT to have one?

The Social Rockstar may be the answer to many of the questions above. We have very affordable social media packages that can fit into any business budget. As you move forward into the 2013 make sure your business is at the forefront of the latest trends in social media and that your Facebook page is helping you retain customer loyalty as well as attracting to customers to your business whether you run an online or brick and mortar operation.

New Year's Resolutions

So, did you make any New Year's Resolutions this year? Do you want to lose weight and/or get in better shape? Stop eating junk food? Go organic? Quit smoking? Read more? Maybe your goal is to make more money and improve your business?

It seems that no matter what your goal is for the New Year, you can find all the answers, tips and tricks and useful tools you need to meet your goals online. If your goal is to meet the man or woman of your dreams, you can join a dating site to meet new people. If you want to lose weight you can find online support, calorie tracking tools and even instructional workout videos online.

If your goal is to make more money and improve your business, you can hire a social media manager to help make sure that your online presence is all it can be and that the right prospective clients are finding you online.

Advertising VS Connecting

If you are running a social media campaign for a well known national brand you can get away with posting mainly advertising messages. However, if you are running a social media campaign for a smaller business this is a deadly strategy. Why? The reason is simple, a major corporation already has a "fan base" and and people expect and will respond to advertising messages from a large company that they are familiar with. A smaller and/or lesser known company, however, needs to interact with customers and potential customers as a "friend" and not as an advertiser, otherwise they will turn people off.

What makes the difference between connecting and advertising? It starts with listening to other people and being interested in them. If your only intention is making a sale, you will likely fail in your social media efforts. If you are interested in people and in connecting with them, you will eventually be in a position of friendship and trust with them and they will be interested in what you have to say and in hearing about your products or services.

Are Your Social Media Efforts Paying Off?

You finally decided that in order for your small business to succeed you need to get more exposure on the internet. So you set up a Facebook page for your business and got one of those Twitter accounts that everyone is talking about and starting posting links to your Blog or relevant YouTube videos every other day or so. Why haven't these efforts started paying off yet? Why don't you have thousands of "followers" yet, let alone any new customers for your business?

The truth is that while participating in Social Media is fairly easy to do, there is an art and a science to making your social media efforts pay off for your business. Constantly posting only links and messages about how great your products are or the latest sale you are having is ADVERTISING not SOCIALIZING and it turns people off in a big way. You have to connect with people using social media and not try to sell to them.

Connecting with people in a way that adds value to their lives makes them want to "follow" you and do business with you, but frankly it takes time. Since you have to actually run your business to stay in business the smartest way you can make your social media efforts pay off is by hiring a professional social media manager to do the work for you.

Why Social Media Matters

Asking why Social Media matters to your business is almost like asking why you need to breathe. Social Media is the way the majority of people communicate these days. They turn to trusted friends and associates for their opinions, they get their daily news, they play games and entertain themselves and find out what happened on their favorite TV shows all through social media.

Why does this matter to your business? Advertising through radio, television, print and Internet ads is a time trusted and proven way to tell people about your business' products and services, but people know they are being "sold" to and don't always trust everything they see and hear. Word-of-mouth advertising is the oldest and best form of advertising because people trust their friends and acquaintances for an honest opinion. Social Media is like word-of-mouth advertising on steroids. A good social media campaign will help increase or improve your company's image and will solidify your marketing campaign. The right campaign will help you build trust and loyalty with existing customers while also drawing new customers in. Hiring the right social media manager or management company will help you get the best results because Social Media does matter for your business.