The importance of an integrated Social Media Marketing solution

Isn’t it about time you got serious about your Social Media Marketing with a well thought out and integrated marketing strategy?

Too many companies leap into the realm of Social Media without any thought to having an integrated Social Media marketing plan and are often adhoc about their Social Media activities. It’s not a solo act but an important component of your overall marketing plan to create cross-media synergy. Here are five ways to incorporate your Social Media with traditional marketing strategies and achieve optimum results.

Choose the right Social Media marketing strategy

The basis of any marketing strategy is to use a vehicle that carefully match your target audience and similarly, Social Media is not a one size fits all marketing solution. Facebook may have the biggest numbers and reach but if it’s not the right fit for your audience, you need to focus your efforts in other areas. If you are a B2B company, then using LinkedIn may give you access to the specific audience you want to reach. For some brands Social Media just isn’t relevant.

Combine Social Media with traditional marketing activities

Where possible, your Social Media accounts as well as your web presence should be incorporated in all your online and offline activity whether they are print advertisements, direct mail, newsletters or special offers and promotions. Traditional marketing and Social Media have a symbiotic relationship and feed off each other. There is no additional cost for including Social Media buttons or links in marketing activities so it is pure ROI.

Promote events via Social Media

Social media is a great way to promote events such as trade shows, exhibitions or other special events. You can use Twitter or LinkedIn for example to simply spread the word and create hype for your event and direct people to your website or even create special event pages on Facebook. You can use your accounts for both pre and post event Social Media marketing such as posting photos of the event on your Facebook company page.

Incorporate Social Media into your website design

Social Media and follow me buttons should be seamlessly incorporated as part of your overall web design and ideally placed above the fold. People visiting your website should be made aware that you have Social Media properties and ideally this should be given real estate on your website. If you create videos as part of your marketing strategy, VSEO (Video Search Engine Optimisation) is also important.

Use Social Media for market research

As well as traditional marketing research campaigns such as surveys and focus groups, it’s also a good idea to use Social Media to do market research and ask for feedback in real-time. This can be done via discussions, surveys or polls on your Social Media pages or monitoring feedback on your blog. You can use this information for trend analysis, finding out the likes, dislikes and unmet needs of your target market and brand monitoring.

Social Media is not designed to replace traditional marketing activities altogether. It is a new platform that is intended to complement your tried and tested marketing activities like advertising, direct marketing and public relations. If Social Media marketing seems intimidating, contact us to find out just how fast, natural and easy it can be to create a Social Media presence and stay relevant in your marketing activities.

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