Social Media 101

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When it comes to social media, you have to be involved.

We know this: 62% of men and women between the ages of 25 and 54 are using social media every single day. That’s huge for marketing potential. Social media must be a part of your marketing campaign.

Let’s look at Google. Google is the number one search engine. Do you know what is the second? YouTube. YouTube should be an important part of your marketing campaign. You might not think of YouTube as a search engine, but it is. A lot of Fortune 500 companies are now driving every day a massive amount of video on YouTube because of its search engine capability and it is quickly catching up with Google.

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Four main social media outlets to gear strategies toward:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• YouTube

What I hear frequently from small and large clients across the US, Canada, and Mexico is “Aw, you know what? I don’t have time for that.” You know what? You need to make time for that. It is not as difficult as you imagine. You can structure it in a way most convenient for you. If you’re a small business owner or sales person, you can take care of things yourself. Or you can hire a part-time administrative assistant to see after it. Some companies have one person designated to handle all their social media.

You could also hire some of those great search engine optimization companies. Here in Dallas we have Splashmedia.com. It’s fantastic. Splashmedia.com is one of the companies that help corporations with specific social media plans and you can buy their services for your social media campaign. They will handle it all for you!

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Tracking Social Media Returns

Many companies ask “How do we track it?” You can simply ask people how they’ve heard of you by including that option to in the “Contact Us” section of your website. But the best way is use companies that offer tracking mechanisms that track social media-connected ROI.

But how much ROI do you really get? In the past couple of years, I’ve had some great ROI from my social media marketing. Two of my biggest clients have come through social media: Chase and Transamerica. Chase found me on YouTube and contacted me. I’ve been working for one of their divisions for four years. My connection with Transamerica began with a conversation on Facebook initiated by one of their employees  and has led to a contract with them, and recently the person who contacted me booked me for their sales conference.

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We know that social media pays off.

It helps in our search engine optimization and other things, so do not put your head in the sand! Ignoring social media is ignoring the chance to increase your contacts—and your revenue! Whether you’re a salesperson, the owner of a small business, or the owner of a Fortune 100 company, you need to use social media.

So to be or not to be on social media? The answer is to be!