Broaden Your Reach by Looking to the Periphery of Your Business
Utilizing Social Media for
business has already proven to increase brand awareness, generate revenue, and
drive traffic to a main website. We’ve known for a long time that the various
aspects of Social Media are essential to operating business in today’s fast
changing world of advanced technology. Since tools like Facebook, LinkedIn, and
Twitter are going to be around for a long time to come, understanding how to
operate them is an important practice for any company.
Keep in mind that Social Media outlets are more than just “advertising” or marketing tools. These can also be places where you educate and entertain your clients. A little creativity is all it takes. Let your website be more than a place for you to post comments and interact with others; make it the one stop resource tool where people go to explore and learn about topics related peripherally to your business. Not everything has to be focused on the very center of what you do; look around the edges and see what you find.
If you are in retail, pick any item or collection of items in your store and post interesting articles on how to use them in unique or better ways. An aisle of kitchen utensils can turn into its own category of cooking, recipes, and how to care for cutlery. Link videos of short cooking demonstrations or knife sharpening tips from your website, then post on Facebook and tweet a message out on Twitter that you’ve just placed a great idea for tonight’s dinner or a new “how-to” on your site. Be sure to include a shortened link that leads to the right page! Broken links or inaccurate links are frustrating to the user and do not reflect well on your business. (Hootsuite makes it very easy to shrink hyperlinks.)
A video rental store could take advantage of this same tactic not only to announce the latest releases but also to help fans find entertainment information. Post celebrity style tips, link to informative clips on how movies are made, post the lyrics to songs on a soundtrack and a link to the video, or simply pull articles from an entertainment magazine. Getting creative with the ways you bring attention to what lies on the periphery of your business broadens your reach beyond that which is the most obvious focus of your business.
I recently heard from an immigration legal firm, about how they’re using Social Media on their own website to benefit their clients not only by linking to the popular tools like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, but also by posting bi-monthly immigration law information, monthly educational videos, and e-newsletters. Imagine how much simpler it must be to research information on how to bring a family member into the country, start a new business, or file taxes. With one, single portal like this, bookmarking a number of different sites becomes unnecessary and the exposure of a brand or business name is multiplied.
Just make sure you don’t over clutter, or create too much “noise.” In other words, don’t post and send out anything and everything you find that is related to your business. Be thoughtful and consider what you’re attaching to your website. Even though a video might not be produced by your company or be an exact match of your service; your audience perceives that whatever you put on your site is indirectly endorsed by you. Screen carefully for offensive material or anything that may be considered exploitative. As always, give credit where it is due. You cannot claim an article, photograph, video, or other work as your own without crediting its original source or creator.
Open the Social Media window wide and see how fresh you can make your content. Not only are the tools of Social Media available as an opportunity to increase brand awareness, generate revenue, and drive traffic to your site; they can also help you broaden the reach of your current customer base by bringing the periphery of your business into the spotlight simply by educating and entertaining your audience.
Wendy D. Wells is President of WD Wells Writing and Editing, LLC
She is a Charlotte, NC based, Telecommuting Copywriter, Professional Blogger and Editor.
Follow me on Twitter! @WendyWells
In : Social Media
Tags: "social media" revenue brand
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I am a professional wordsmith and a Marketing and Brand generations strategist with experience composing Public Relations and Marketing creative copy including: web sites, blogs, print, press releases, catalog copy, and email marketing campaigns.
Read my blogs regularly and you'll find I'm passionate about writing - always have been. Since I first heard the story of "Peter Pan and Wendy," I became a lover of stories. As soon as I could hold a book and understand the alphabet, I grew to be an avid reader. Once I was able to hold a pencil and put sentences together, I knew I was a writer.
