Five Tips for Social Media Marketing

Everyone loves a winner.

Every business that launches a new marketing campaign envisions the perfect result, where the brand is flourishing and the leads are coming in faster than you can manage them.

But the truth of the matter is that great marketing takes a great amount of work. Having your brand 'Go viral' is much more the result of persistence and quality work than it is a stroke of luck.

If you have the same lofty aspirations of dominating with your brand, but aren't quite sure where to start, here are 5 quick tips to get you well on your way.

1. Aim Your Content In The Right Direction
Have you thought about how you want prospects to find you?

Start with a list of keywords that you would most want to be found for when your customers are searching. List out 10 words or phrases that fit your brand. Then head over to Google's handy Keyword Tool and enter in the keywords you've chosen. The tool will give you important information about the words you've chosen, and will likely suggest some similar phrases that get even more search volume.

Once you have your list of 10 solidified, you'll have an awesome building block for your blog and social content.

2. Pay Attention To Your Business Listings
Can you think of anything much more important to your business than ensuring your prospects know how to find or contact you? Many companies simply do not take advantage of their business information in local directories.

66% of Americans use local search to find local businesses and in a day where nearly all consumers use the Internet before making purchasing decisions, you HAVE to be accessible to them in your market.

Start simple. Check your Yelp and Google Places listings for accuracy, and create one if you haven't yet.

3. Show Some (Digital) Love
Can't remember the last time someone wrote about your brand or shared your content? When's the last time you did it for someone else?

Did you know how your site ranks with Google depends heavily on how many people are linking to your site?

Learn about backlinks and then start clicking and linking and sharing. Have you read an article lately that you really loved? Share it on your blog or on your Facebook/Twitter accounts. Show enough love and you'll see it coming back in spades. And Google will reward you too!

4. Solve Someone's Problem
This one is really easy!

You can do this in a lot of ways, but I'll share an easy and effective one that will take you 5 minutes. Log on to your Twitter (Or set one up if you don't have one yet) and start searching for topics in your field.

A practical example: The Midwest has suffered some bad droughts in the past year. If you owned a landscaping company in Kansas City, a quick search of 'Kansas City drought' on Twitter would lead you to discussions where KC residents are expressing their frustrations on dealing with the drought. Jump in the conversation with some free tips and advice and those users will thank you (and follow you) later.

Always keep an ear out on your social media networks for people needing help. This is proactive (potential) customer service. If you want to take it a step further, invest in the right tools that will let you know when people are talking about problems you can solve.

5. Create A Local Offer
Social campaigns are a big thing in the Internet marketing world right now. You can't scroll a Facebook news feed without seeing several types of offers by companies you follow (or don't).

A common mistake businesses make is giving away items that don't attract valuable fans. While an iPad giveaway could boost your fan count on Facebook (and that's a viable strategy), it won't find the right types of prospects that are looking for services you provide.

What service could you afford to give away to attract new fans?

Chris Vaughn is the Content Marketing Director for DigitalSherpa, the world's largest content marketing provider for small businesses. With the recent acquisition of SocialTract, DigitalSherpa is thrilled to welcome the HVAC community in to our client family. Learn more about content marketing and check out our free e-books and whitepapers at http://digitalsherpa.com. Connect with Chris and the DigitalSherpa team on Facebook and Twitter or e-mail Chris directly at [email protected].