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Social Media Marketing: An Edge Over Your Competition

A Well-Devised Strategy Using Social Media Can Boost Business Profits

It's not news that social media has revolutionized marketing in recent years. You already know that your customers increasingly use Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, or any of the many internet networking services and websites to share opinions, catch up on trends, or to talk to each other.

There are more than 750 million Facebook users, half of whom log on to the website every day. Thirty-five hours of video footage are uploaded to Youtube every minute. Twitter boasts nearly 200 million accounts. Users skew young, so while social media channels may come and go (remember Myspace?), this internet phenomenon becomes progressively more pervasive, changing the face of marketing.

What is social media?

Often referred to as Web 2.0, social media are internet-based applications that provide for the creation and exchange of user-generated content. Before Web 2.0, the internet was strictly a one-way highway – users logged on to a site and viewed its contents. Today, the internet is a conversation in which anyone can participate.

Savvy businesses have seized the opportunity. The company that utilizes social media effectively has a tremendous advantage over competitors who may not understand how to use the internet to promote and, just as importantly, protect their brand.

Consumers have always discussed among themselves products or services and the companies that provide them. Today, social media allows consumers to share their opinions with the world. This can be disastrous for the company that offers a bad product or poor service, but an absolute gold mine for a reputable company that puts the customer first. Even better, it offers a company a way of communicating with consumers on a personal level.

Social Media Marketing for Small Businesses

A radio spot, television commercial or magazine ad may touch a lot of people, but how personal is it? Social media is intimate in a way those other marketing channels - which allow only one-way communication - are not. Facebook fans, Twitter users and Yelp visitors are engaged in a conversation; it's up to you to participate.

The good news is that using social media as a marketing tool need not be expensive. Even better, small companies can benefit just as much as large corporations. It may not technically cost you anything but time, and that's where WSI can help.

We will help you identify evolving trends and understand how you can take advantage of social media opportunities. A WSI specialist can custom-fit a social media marketing solution that will not only drive traffic to your website and convert those visitors into customers, but build your brand awareness and manage your online reputation. Call today at (916) 933-7414 or email Lou@wsiMarketBuilders.com and get started with an initial consultation that is absolutely free.

Choosing Social Media Sites That Work for You

We consider social media to be a vast playground. A company should carefully pick only the outlets that will carry its message most effectively. There are many social media channels; these are the largest:

• Facebook: The king of social media networks, founded in 2004 by Harvard students. Users communicate with each other in a variety of ways while maintaining "profile" pages that include images and personal information. Even the White House has a Facebook page.
• Twitter: Before this messaging network became popular, a "tweet" came from birds. Tweets, or messages of a limited length, can be sent and received among groups of "followers." Lady Gaga has nearly 12 million followers.
• Youtube: Users can watch or upload videos to this website. It's been estimated that in 2007 Youtube consumed as much bandwidth as the entire internet in 2000.
• LinkedIn: A business- and work-related networking site, it has more than 100 million registered users.

Weblogs, or "blogs," are another social media outlet that actually cropped up before most of the current popular social websites and they are continuing to grow in popularity.

As effective as it may be, marketing with social media may seem more suited for B2C enterprises, but that's not necessarily true. After all, like a B2B, a B2C still sells to people. Regardless of whether you are a B2B or a B2C, let a WSI online specialist show you how to create a social media strategy that delivers your marketing message to the target audience.

Benefits of Social Media Marketing

A social media marketing strategy developed by WSI can help your business:

• Generate high-quality leads
• Improve your organic search engine page rankings
• Reduce marketing expenses and customer "churn"
• Improve customer service
• Gain customer and market feedback in real time
• Protect the reputation of your brand

Our social media specialists will research, identify opportunities, and execute your social media marketing strategy. We'll determine where and when your target demographic is spending time online and what your competition is doing. Depending on your industry, market and business objectives, WSI will use a combination of these elements to gain the upper hand over your competition:

• Social Networking (Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn)
• Blogging
• Video Optimization (YouTube)
• Social Bookmarking (Digg, del.icio.us)
• Photo Sharing (Flickr, Photobucket)
• Online Brand Reputation Management
• Custom Application Development
• Reporting and Web Analytics

Discover more about the growing importance of social media. Let WSI customize a social media solution that produces measurable and profitable results for your business. Call today at (916) 933-7414 or email Lou@wsiMarketBuilders.com.