Social media marketing services for Knoxville, Sevierville, Gatlinburg & Pigeon Forge, TN
Social media and social networking have fundamentally changed the way businesses interact with consumers online.
What is Social Media?
Essentially, social media are the platforms used to share information, photos, videos, updates and more with a network of other people online. Websites such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn and others are the websites that allow you to build a following and get your message out to people who want to hear it.
What can you use social media for?
Social media gives your business the ability to tell your current (and potential) customers about your company, share information that is important to them, build an online relationship with them and establish yourself as a leader in your field. In turn for your sharing with them, a number of them will want to know more about your company and what you can do for them. Some will want to sign up for a newsletter. And, some will call you or refer you to their friends for new business.
How does it help your business?
As a business person, you know that traditional advertising is expensive. And, depending on the medium, you may have limited control over targeting the people you want to see your ads and it can be limiting on how you are able to interact with consumers.
Social media can help you solve these problems, by:
Targeting people who self identify as interested in your company or services in the geographic areas you do business in
Support many different types of content (photos, videos, text, audio) so you have the widest range of content to interest people
Social media is much more affordable
Follow-up is easier, more efficient and can require fewer resources
Social media isn’t a fad
The truth is, websites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are huge! Facebook is the largest social network on the planet. (Yes, millions of users globally.) Over 71% of U.S. web users are on Facebook. Twitter has over 200,000,000 registered users. YouTube gets over 2 billion views a day and the average visitor spends approximately 15 minutes on the site. 65% of U.S. adults use social media sites and say they have received positive benefit from it.
Social media isn’t going away and will only continue to grow. It has changed the way that people interact with businesses and added a new way for businesses to engage potential customers. If you own a business in Knoxville, TN or other East Tennessee city, it can be help you too.
How it can help build your business
Use social media to connect with and inform local consumers is a win-win situation for you and them. They get to know more about your company and you get to learn more about what they want and need. By combining social media with a website, forms and some list building activities, you can begin capturing and nurturing leads for the long term.
Start or improve your social media efforts
We can help! Contact us or call (865) 314-7718 for more information.
Start with a social media marketing plan
The best place to start is by building a social media marketing plan. This plan should clearly outline what you hope to accomplish, who your target market is and where you will focus your efforts. More specifically, it should incorporate the following:
Executive Summary – This is the document you filter up (or out, depending on your role) to the decision makers in your company. It should summarize the components of your social media marketing plan and highlight expected benefit.
Goals and Objectives – Describe how it will Next, consider what the primary goals and objectives of the strategy will be. This may depend on your area of business – for example, if you are an author, one objective may be to connect with your fans. In general, the three goals of any marketing strategy are to raise brand awareness, to engage customers and build a community, and to transform anonymous traffic into customers.
Target Audience – You should already know who your current customers are (if you don’t, go find out). This section will tell about them and who your potential customers are. Do the right research to be able to nail down both of them in a sentence or two.
Sites – This is where you talk about the social networking sites you want to develop (or expand) your company’s presence on. (I.e. Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc.) This is essentially the meat of the proposal. This will be the how and where the Goals and Objectives above will be accomplished. Take the time to find out what social networks your current and desired customers are on. Not all social media sites are equal in terms of the people they attract.
Control – You can’t control the social media channel or the consumers that use them. However, you can build in a process for handling things that may come up. This is another reason why choosing the right (and right number) of social networking sites is important; you have to monitor your fan page, twitter comments, etc. Document how you will monitor, as well as how you will handle customer complaints (service recovery), customer or pre-sales questions or even negative reviews.
Content – Use this section to talk about the content you will post on each social networking site. Focus on what kind of content (even particular ideas for content to be created), frequency of updates, rules for interacting with users or fans, what users can or cannot do and how each of these things line up with company goals.
Measure, analyze, report – This is the part of the plan that describes “how we will know if we succeed.” What will you measure? How often. What will be provided to the business to show progress?
As was stated before, social media is not going anywhere. If you want to stay competitive, be proactive and begin building a social media marketing plan for your company. This will help you ensure your success, as well as provide the necessary commitment to the business and set expectations. Your social media marketing plan should definitely be written down. (In case you were wondering.)
Social media is cost effective
You can get started using Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or YouTube for business today for nothing more than an investment of your time. However, we find many business owners prefer to consult with someone who can show them the ropes or jumpstart their social media by setting everything up for them. This can save you time and make sure you get it right the first time. We offer social media consulting at affordable rates. See our social media packages for more information.
Let us help you get started and manage your social media
Learn what you need to know about planning and executing your social media strategy. Our services provide everything you need to know from start to finish. Using the services of an inbound marketing professional familiar with your business and goals will help ensure your success.
Contact us or call (865) 314-7718 for more information.
