Transparency Through Social Media Marketing - Let Your Audience In

It’s no secret that social media marketing is fast becoming a staple in every successful marketing strategy. Some of the largest corporations today are not only implementing, but implementing on a very large scale, their social media marketing campaigns. Pepsi, Dell, Disney, Starbucks, Ford and IBM are some of the big ones now realizing the major benefits of a well planned social marketing campaign.

The boom of the social networks like FaceBook, Twitter, LinkedIn along with many others, has allowed these big corporations to really get personal with their customers, and the consumers in their industry…it’s really changed the way some of the largest corporations communicate and do business. Never before has this happened…anywhere.

By being able to talk directly to their target audience, and taking part in the conversations that are taking place, they are able to better serve them. By including them in, on a lot of product research, development, promotions, events and contests, it’s giving the average consumer a sense of being part of something much bigger then themselves. Who doesn’t like to feel like that?

In the same breath, the social explosion has given the consumer the power to dictate, by being able to share their experiences, opinions, reviews and thoughts on everything from their favorite restaurant to the car they drive. So in the same way that social media marketing can dramatically increase a companies brand power, it can destroy it just as fast…maybe even faster because bad news seems to spread a lot quicker then good news.

Just as social media marketing is helping the some of the largest corporations get into the social scene, it’s also allowed the ‘Mom & Pop’ businesses to gain, and increase their reach into a now, much extended market. Social media marketing is for any size business, no matter if you’re the only person working your business or you have 50 staff. A proper social campaign will be very much transparent, allowing for your companies personality to shine through, building trust and confidence.

Although social media may seem very casual and nonchalant, you must have set goals and benchmarks when you’re setting up your social media marketing campaign. By doing, somewhat of an internal audit into your social networking activities up to the present time, you can gain a valuable starting point from which to set up your campaign so you can reach your goals and objectives.

If you’re finding that you don’t have enough hours in the day to do the daily requirements of social networking, you may want to look at adding a social media manager internally. If you hate the thought of adding another employee, then you may want to consider hiring a Virtual Assistant (VA) of a social media management company to handle the duties. These are done on a contract, per job or hourly rates, so you have a lot of flexibility for whatever your budget allows for.

No matter what route you choose, hiring an employee, VA or outsourcing to a social media management company, you must choose to include some form of social marketing into your business today.