2012 Social MediaSpring Cleaning Tip #2
Social media is more than Facebook and Twitter: Leverage Content Rich Social Media Platforms

SocialMediaExaminer.com released a 2011 Social Media Marketing study that listed Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and blogging as the top 4 social media marketing tools for business. Not only were they the top 4 social media applications in use for business, they beat out the rest by a wide margin, so it’s likely that your social media strategy for 2012 needs to include them. The jury is still out on whether Google+ is going to develop the same type of reach as Facebook, but you can’t afford not to participate with the likelihood that it is going to affect search results and rankings.

But that is not to say that they are the only four social media tools you should be using.

• Find out which social media tools are right for your business, and prioritize them. An infographic like Brian Solis’ conversation prism illustrates that there are hundreds of tools which qualify as social media; however, not all tools are created equal.
• Choosing which social media networks to participate in will require that you know which ones your customers and ideal client types are using for networking and which they turn to for news, information and expert advice. These might not be the same; for instance, your customers may network socially on Facebook, professionally on Google+ and use LinkedIn or multi-author content-rich blogs like Open Forum, Hubpages or Squidoo to author industry or topic-specific learning resources.
  One of the ways PartyPail is leveraging content-rich networks is to use their Squidoo account to provide party planning resources and expert decorating tips. Also, visual and design-related social media platforms are on the rise at the moment, and PartyPail has found that leveraging these platforms gets them right in front of their perfect customer base. Not all businesses will find the same success on such design-oriented social networks, but PartyPail’s Pinterest account has started gaining followers, generating interactions with customers, and even led to sales.
• Your customers and prospects may also be active in online communities which are industry or specialty-specific (such as a forum for professional tax or finance professionals, marketing professionals, etc.) where you could interact by asking questions or providing expert answers.
• Work less, but achieve more. By focusing your social media efforts strategically and utilizing the platforms most likely to reach your customers and ideal client types, you can spend less time on social media but receive a higher ROI.

Elizabeth Kraus – small business marketing consultant and author of 365 Days of Marketing.

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Guest blogger Elizabeth Kraus, author of 365 Days of Marketing, is a small business marketing consultant who has been working with a Solid Cactus customer, PartyPail, Inc., to enhance their social media marketing strategy into 2012.

Spring is right around the corner so make sure to add these five Spring Cleaning tips to maximize your Social Media Marketing results in 2012:

I recently read an article about social media which stated (and quite accurately so, I might add) that social media is not new. Nor was it new last year, or the year before that. Like many other innovations, social media’s popularity soared well before corporate America realized its potential.

It took a while for people to adapt the concept of social media platforms for business purposes, find out which their customers and prospects actually use and to develop an approach to social media community management in order to make it effective relative to supporting corporate goals. But now, with scores of social media experts blogging and writing books on the topic and a decade of development behind it, there is no reason to be afraid of using social media for your business – especially if you understand which social media platforms are right for your business, how best to use them, and how to gauge whether they are producing a real return on your marketing investment.

PartyPail, a baby shower and birthday party decorations supplier, is one of many businesses that is using the New Year to re-evaluate their current social media efforts, and resolving to improve them throughout the year. Read on for information about PartyPail’s primary social media resolutions for 2012.

2012 Social Media Spring Cleaning Tip #1
Stop dipping your toes in to test the social media waters; it’s time to jump in.

If you’re still sitting on the edge of the pool just dipping your toes in when it comes to social media, the time has come for you to take the plunge. Social media is a bona fide marketing tool, use it like one!

• The voice, tone, look and “feel” of your social media profiles, status updates and posts should reflect the brand of your business, no less than if it were any other corporate brochure or presentation, because that’s precisely what it ‘is.’
• Social media platforms give you the ability to customize various visual elements and corporate profile information. Take the time to fill these out completely. Use web links where appropriate to drive traffic back to your website. And make it a part of your annual marketing inventory process to review these areas, which are often pushed to the background and may need to be updated to reflect changes in and the growth of your business.
• Think of your social media updates as though you are holding a 24×7 press conference. What type of spokesperson would you want your business to have? What types of information are interesting enough to garner press attention? Not everything is press worthy, and even information which is may need to be ‘spun’ in such a way that is becomes of public interest.
• Your social media should be built around your short and long term goals. Fully integrate social media marketing strategies as a seamless, branded part of your overall marketing efforts in pursuit of specific corporate branding, marketing and sales goals. Do you know what you want to get out of your social media efforts? Determine what type of payoff will make you feel like you’re getting your social media marketing investment dollars’ worth. This might be an increase in sales, but it might also be lead generation, brand awareness, customer goodwill, customer education, referrals, public engagement or other less tangible achievements.

Elizabeth Kraus – small business marketing consultant and author of 365 Days of Marketing.

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Recently Facebook launched a new contest called “Boost Your Small Business on Facebook“. It is designed to help small business (like yours) grow by giving away up to $10M in Facebook advertising!

To participate, the following criteria must be met:

1. A Facebook Page for your small business
2. Your business must be based in the US
3. Your page will need at least 50 likes

50 likes and you’re in, right?
Answer: Not quite. We provide Facebook services for a lot of small business owners like yourself, but only a few were selected by Facebook to be a part of this contest. “Facebook did not select every Facebook Business Page out there to be a part of the contest,” notes Alicia Magda, our resident social media genius. But one thing is certain, our clients who were selected to participate, their Facebook pages exemplifies “the quality of our Facebook posts, the ability to grow Facebook ‘likes’, and our experience in upholding social media best practices (aka no spam!).”

What’s next if you’ve been selected to participate in this contest? Well, step one is savor the $50 in free ads. Then, roll up your sleeves and get to work. If you can get another 100 more likes add to your Small Business page by April 1, 2012, there’s another $100 in free ads! AND, if you’re one of the top 10 pages that gains the most new likes before April 1, 2012, you could win $10,000 more in free ads!

So what are you waiting for? Your “like” buttons aren’t going to click themselves. Get out there and get “like’d”.

Still here? Not sure where to start? I’ll give you a hint, Facebook Management! Let the experts at Solid Cactus help you create, manage, and grow your Facebook Business Page.

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