Are you just starting out with a new venture and want to promote your venture?
In past years the answer to this was the traditional newspaper and television channels with a considerable amount spent on advertisement. But in recent years, the traditional media has taken a back seat. The reason being social media which has fragmented the market.
The effect of social media is so vibrant that having a presence on a social network is a great way to establish new business relationships. For instance, a reporter that followed me on Twitter contacted me for a quote in a story they were writing. Even though we have never met face-to-face, our online relationship is incredibly valuable. Without a strong social media presence, that reporter would have never heard of me
Social Media has shown strong presence alongside commercial internet. Social media is a means to engage with the respondent and have a conversation.
If you studied marketing in the colleges, you were taught the 4 P of marketing—Creation of a Product, Pricing of a product, Placement in the market, and Promoting it.
Product + Pricing+ Placement + Promotion
Today’s marketing approach in connivance with social media involves the 4 Cs of marketing- clean content with a context that entices to make connections with people, products, and brands they can create a community with.
Content + Context + Connection + Community = Social Media Marketing
The ways to promote any product or venture is by posting presentations, photos, videos about your work on social networking sites with a strong content.
By posting a strong content, you will be able to create a strong base of followers. The advantages of having a strong follower base are that the customer will be able to voice his grievances thereby suggesting a right formula for the problem. This will also lead to conversing with the customers and the customers getting a quick response.
According to the study more than 90% of marketers use social media and social networking in one form or the other to conduct their daily business and marketing activities. Among this high number of users, 93% of those questioned cited the “importance of social media to their business”.
Social media encompasses a lot of tools and the ones widely used are Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Youtube, Blogging websites
Facebook continues to enjoy the highest usage among marketers (2011 estimate). Twitter is the second most popular social media tool. The top 4 is rounded out by LinkedIn and Blogging. Video is now becoming a big part of many campaigns to promote their businesses.
The bottom line is that small brands and companies can achieve big success with the help of social media.
Posted by : Anup, Business Consultant, DART Consulting, anup@dartconsulting.co.in.
