If there is one thing every online business wants today, it is a dedicated social media presence. From local businesses to huge multinational companies, the list of enterprising marketers involved in social media is growing by the day, sometimes at an alarmingly fast rate.
But social media marketing is not all about Twitter accounts, Facebook fan pages, and building your own community. A large number of the most successful social media marketers do not even create their own accounts, instead relying on dedicated users to do their marketing for them.
These five methods, tactics, and techniques will help you build a social media presence for your business, all without building a new website or Twitter account. Whether your company maintains a static website or a dynamic blog, incorporating these five techniques will help you gain customers and dedicated social media fans.
Build and Manage a Company Blog
In many ways, blogs are the ultimate social media resource. They are dynamic, they are engaging, and they are something that almost every business should be investing in. Before you add icons to your website or create a company Twitter account, ensure that your business is sharing information on a regular basis that can help your audience stay interested, dedicated, and invested in what you are doing.
Use Social Media Sharing Icons
Social media sharing icons are one of the most common additions to blogging platforms. From Wordpress to Movable Type, almost every blogging back end is accompanied by its own set of Twitter, Facebook, and Ning sharing icons. A quick five minute installation process is all that is required to quickly and easily incorporate sharing icons into your company blog or website.
Encourage Comments
Thanks to commenting platforms like Discus, blog comments are no longer the isolated and unlinked pieces of content that they once were. By encouraging comments, you’ll gain links to new social media presences and help your blog to appear on aggregator websites. Install a dynamic comment tool (Discus) and ensure your anti-spam extension works, then ask readers for their opinions and input.
Use Auto-Tweeting Tools to Gain Twitter Traffic
Marketers constantly bemoan Twitter’s lack of valuable traffic, all the while ignoring its real value: as a huge sharing platform and dedicated community. While Twitter is undeniably ineffective when it comes to selling, it is one of the most important platforms on the internet for helping content go truly viral. If your business has a new blog post or product which is in need of publicity, be sure to configure an auto-tweeting extension to spread the word.
Submit Your Content to Digg, Reddit, and Other Social Bookmarking Websites
Much like Twitter, social bookmarking websites are not renowned for their buy-ready audiences or valuable advertising inventory. However, they are a great tool for creating links to your website, gaining online exposure, and eventually being featured on an influential website. Invest some time into your social bookmarking accounts and you’ll be rewarded, often significantly more so than you would have expected.
Written by Andrea Kalli
EMAIL Andrea.
Andrea Kalli is the owner of Andrea Kalli Virtual Trainer and Assistant, LLC, the Productivity Club, and the Small Business Podcast Directory. Her focus is on Internet and Social Media Marketing, Creating Wordpress Websites and Blogs, Keyword Research and SEO, Product Launch Support, Content Management and Repurposing, and Audio and Video Editing.
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