Social Media for Business

Foolproof Tips to Help You Promote Your Business or Your Brand

Linda Coles

• Publisher: Wiley
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN:
  9780730345770
• Edition: 3
• eBook ISBN:
  9780730345787
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Entrepreneurship
• Index: Business

The quick-and-easy guide to effective social media marketing

Social Media for Business is the essential guide to navigating the social media maelstrom and effectively promoting your business online. You'll learn how to develop a simple marketing plan, use social media effectively and measure the results of your efforts as you turn contacts and followers into customers. This new third edition has been updated to reflect the expanding influence of Instagram, and includes Snapchat, Security, Social Influence and updated case studies that illustrate the rapid evolution of social media as a business tool. You'll learn about the recent changes to Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube and Pinterest and how to factor them into your strategy — as well as when to decide to transition toward or away from any specific platform.

Social media can help you expand your networks, engage with your customers and help you grow your business, but not all platforms work for all businesses. The best results come from directed effort and stellar execution, and this book shows you how to make it happen from setup to sale.

• Learn where to focus your efforts for maximum gain
• Discover the newest platforms, their demographics and their potential
• Understand key changes that can affect the way you use major platforms
• Build an effective social media presence that translates into business

Not every business needs a Facebook page, but every business does need some sort of online presence — and social media can be a high-impact, cost-effective way to reach thousands of potential customers. From building a profile to creating and curating content, Social Media for Business is packed with guidance every business owner needs.

Chapter 1
Social media — policy, plan and profitability

Key areas we will cover in chapter 1:

• ✓ using social media, and why it’s important
• ✓ explaining social influence
• ✓ growing your business with social media
• ✓ networking and making connections
• ✓ making effective social media and content plans
• ✓ monitoring your social media profitability.

If you think social media is for the young ones and that you are too old to even contemplate it — never mind finding the time or having the resources to do it — then you should read on.

Do I need social media?

I have heard people say, ‘I have no time for social media’, to which I respond, ‘You have no time for marketing your business and building relationships with prospects and customers?’

Think about that for a moment.

Yes it takes effort, but so does every aspect of running a successful business, and there are tools available to help you pull it all together. When we put your plan together later in this chapter, you will see how easy it is.

You may also think that your customers and prospects are not on social media, and so social media can’t help your business. Did you know that the fastest-growing demographic on Facebook is females over 55, or that LinkedIn’s most popular sector is ‘service’, with personal profiles for everyone from cheese-makers to the president of the United States? There is a group of people, however large or small, on these channels — or accounts — just waiting for you to put yourself or your brand on their radar.

How cool would it be to get your customers’ feedback in real time, as it is happening? You’ll get both good and not-so-good comments, but the not-so-good comments are as valuable to your business as the good. If the comments show you have an issue in your business that needs fixing, it’s better that you know about it, isn’t it? You can then apologise, react to the issue and make it good for everyone to see.

Sharing your life and finding new friends online is now the norm. But while I don’t want to share my private life with the masses, I am okay about sharing my business life with anyone who is willing to listen. It’s a great way to let interested people know your business exists.

Digital marketing and social influence

By using the online channels, more and more people will get to know that your business or brand exists. Do a great job at getting people talking and sharing, and you’ll find others will happily follow their lead, also known as their social influence.

What is social influence?

The Wikipedia definition of social influence is quite simply:

Social influence occurs when a person’s emotions, opinions, or behaviours are affected by others. Social influence takes many forms and can be seen in conformity, socialization, peer pressure, obedience, leadership, persuasion, sales and marketing.

If you’ve ever read Jonah Berger’s book Invisible Influence you will know that, like his book Contagious, it’s absolutely chock-full of real stories and light-bulb moments — and it is one of the few business books I didn’t want to put down. It takes you down the path of ‘invisible influence’, something I hadn’t thought too much about — until I read the book. Now I am fully aware of those things that do influence me in one way or another. There are plenty of ways you can influence your prospects to buy from you, such as clever marketing campaigns, effective branding, an attractive sales team or a well-known customer-service philosophy. But what about the things you can’t control within your business — the things that influence but are not obviously seen?

Let me explain using some of Berger’s examples and some of my own.

• 
  You take your team out to a restaurant for lunch to celebrate a milestone. You have your eye on the apple pie for dessert but when the waitress collects the dessert orders and you realise you are the only one ordering, you don’t want to eat alone so you immediately change your mind and go without. It was your co-workers who influenced you to change your mind — without you realising it.
• 
  It’s autumn, and the weather is up and down. You never know what to wear. You don’t want to be too hot, or too cold. So you look out the window to see what others are wearing and make your decision from there. In this case, complete strangers are influencing you on what to wear.
• 
  It’s well known that you never eat at a restaurant that has no customers in it. You are influenced to move on because you figure the food mustn’t be any good if no-one is eating there.
• 
  You go to the gym on a particular day purely because your friend is going.
• 
  You buy a book because of the cover design or the description of what’s inside.
• 
  You buy a new cereal when you can see what it looks like through the cellophane window in the box.
• 
  You keep away from a person because they are unkempt.
• 
  You don’t like to open a bottle of wine if there’s no-one to join you.

When...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Foreword
• About the author
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Opening story
• Chapter 1: Social media — policy, plan and profitability
• Chapter 2: Facebook
• Chapter 3: LinkedIn
• Chapter 4: Twitter
• Chapter 5: YouTube
• Chapter 6: Instagram
• Chapter 7: Pinterest
• Chapter 8: Snapchat
• Chapter 9: Online etiquette
• Chapter 10: Email marketing
• Chapter 11: Podcasting
• Chapter 12: Google+
• Chapter 13: Making your website work
• Chapter 14: Staying safe
• Chapter 15: Promoting yourself and getting results
• Wrap
• Appendix: Daisy’s social media plan
• Index
• EULA