How to Promote your Business on Social Networks

The Jim MacMillan, Pulitzer Prize Winner, Story

Over the past 2 years Jim MacMillan, a Pulitzer Prize Winning photojournalist, has gained quite a following by blogging, sharing his photos, and using social networks such as Twitter.  In that short amount of time, he has gained over 14,000 followers on Twitter and stays connected with almost 500 people on Facebook.

This type of marketing is amazing considering the organic nature of what Jim has done compared with how much money businesses are spending on social networks.  For instance,

MediaPost reported that businesses spent $2.2 billion on social-networking in 2008, nearly twice as much as they did in 2007, primarily through advertising on popular sites like MySpace and Facebook.

The reason for the shift in organic marketing is probably due to:

…entertainment used to be watching TV or buying movie tickets…That shift is a desire to connect with the artist and to support [him or her] directly.

By being connected with the brand personally, consumers often become evangilists for the brand, just like friends and family members support each other.  With over 200 million users on a social network, the numbers add up quickly and reciprocation can be amazing.

Read Jim’s Full Story at Knowledge@Wharton

Social Networking 101 for Businesses

Social Media Marketing differs from traditional marketing, in that, instead of being targeted by marketers, consumers want to interact with marketers.  Below is a collection of excepts to help businesses get started with social media and social marketing.  Stay tuned for more tips!

Nowadays, everybody is talking about Social Media Marketing (SMM) and how great it is for promoting a business. The truth is, most people are really confused about SMM, and they feel very frustrated because they want to take advantage of it but just don’t know how. The goal of this article is to help those people plan and execute a successful SMM campaign.

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Give Before You Take. Share your expertise, help others, post articles and answer questions. Don’t start asking for business on day one. Social networking is for building relationships and trust.

Be Active. Spend 15 minutes every day building your network, posting comments and contacting other community members. If you aren’t noticed in your community, you might as well not be there.

Share Your Knowledge. If you are one of those people who wants to join social networks to benefit from what others know, but you’re not willing to be generous and share your own knowledge, you will never be successful at SMM. When you start sharing what you know, people open up to you. That’s when you start building valuable relationships. If you are always giving, people will want to reciprocate.

Source: PartnerUp

Which Social Network Would You Pay For?

Abrams Research

It is obvious businesses are getting comfortable using social networks to promote their brands. However, companies are still trying to figure out which social networks to use and how to use them.

According to Abrams Research 32% of “media leaders” say that they would pay for Facebook, given the choice of purchasing a single social network. However, when asked which social network you should pay for, Twitter beats Facebook at 39%.

See the rest of the results at Tech Crunch

Tampa Ikea and Crate & Barrel Social Comparison

Ikea

VS

In May 2009, 2 major trendy furniture stores opened in Tampa, Florida – Ikea and Crate & Barrel.  According to the May 4th, 2009 issue of the Tampa Tribune, Ikea’s Facebook page members far outnumbered Crate & Barrel’s 228,186 to 2,681.  However, this number makes sense since the average age of Facebook users is closer to Ikea’s average customer age than Crate & Barrel’s.

Why Social Network?

Social Networking can help you get a job, get signed to a record label, or attract new business.

Nathan Egan has 5 good reasons to start using social networks.