The phrase “social media” has become a catch-all for a long list of viral marketing strategies often associated with the chicklets listed under a blog post for well known platforms like Facebook, Wordpress, RSS, Twitter, Stumble Upon, Del.oc.ious, Technorati and others. How to make these platforms work for your business is often a mystery that scares the hell out of many business owners.
Two chef’s in L.A. created a roach-coach success called Kogi that mixes Korean and Mexican flavors in a mobile taco truck experience. When they first started the business no one came. They quickly found that people liked their tacos and created a strategy to get the word out quickly regarding their daily location and specials using Twitter. They now have 8,000 followers. YouTube is another platform that they use to showcase the unique experience Kogi brings to a neighborhood. Notice the very young audience Kogi attracts.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbQuCW95ESQ
So how do you decide which social media platform is right to promote your business?
- Create compelling content - Kogi’s content is a unique menu as well as a dynamic experience
- Think about your target audience. What social media platforms do they use? If your demographic falls in the age range 30-50 consider email as a social media platform.
- Define measurable business goals to reach that target audience such as selling 20 subscriptions over the 1st quarter.
- Develop a strategy to reach your business goals factoring in how a social media platform can compliment your marketing efforts. If you have a blog, there are plugins to allow your subscribers to share your information with others easily.
Don’t rule out social media altogther. Be creative and think of social media as platform to deliver information much like email (a social media strategy.) If the platform compliments your business goals, test it out. When it comes to the new social media platforms, don’t rule them out completely as millenials are bringing the Gen X’ers and Baby Boomers up to speed quickly.
What you say on your Web site is critical in conveying a message to a potential customer or client. Writing pursasive text is as much an art as a science.
We do this. We do that. It is typical to write content in “we-we” talk. Web site owners focus on what “we do” instead of the benefits to the intended audience.
Take the we-we challege, made popular by the author of “It’s the Customer Stupid”, Bryan Eisenberg, and see if your Web site passes the test.
Converting users to customers is an entire practice worthy of exploring much further than this post. In order to write pursasive text that appeals to both users and search engines, you need to:
- Target your audience
- Perform thorough keyword research
- Write your message for your target audience using pursuasive text and include good keyword phrases
- Format and place keywords and keyword phrases in strategic places on your Web pages
- Determine your keyword density - the percentage of times a keyword and keyword phrase is used on a single Web page compared to the total number of words (exclusions exist)
- Measure and fine-tune
Piece of cake…
