Guest Post: The Value of Social Media Buzz

Today we’re featuring a special guest post from guest blogger Rachel Walker at FastUpFront which provides business cash advances for small businesses. Social media buzz is pivotal to the success of businesses both big and small but how does the marketing work for it and once you have an engaged customer, how do you get them to stay engaged with your brand?

I remember when social media was still in its infancy, with Facebook and Twitter leaping to become overnight social network sensations. Today there are a whole slew of social media sites which allow people to share their thoughts, feelings, and opinions on anything and everything- and businesses are working hard to keep up with the tweeting Joneses.

Savvy consumers use these platforms to share their opinions of businesses with one another, while said businesses scurry to leverage their social media reputations to attract more customers.  In the blink of an eye, social media has now become one of the most important marketing platforms worldwide. Now that we’re there, how does social media marketing work and how exactly does one keep a customer engaged with their fan page to keep that buzz going?

How Does Social Media Marketing Work?

There are many different methods when it comes to taking advantage of social media for marketing purposes being utilized, but here are a few tried and true ways to getting online exposure easy.

•          By “liking” a brand on Facebook or promoting it via Google+ fans are able to give their favorite companies a much-needed boost in Insight popularity and help to spread word of mouth out to their followers and friends

•          When businesses run promotions on the major social networks, fans of the brand can help spread the news by posting about the giveaways on their Facebook wall and tweet out a quick message with a bit.ly link included, all the while providing valuable exposure to the promoting brands

•          Sites like Yelp allow consumers to rate and comment about brands that they feel inspired to provide feedback about. Businesses can view the comments and reply if they like and also create new marketing campaigns for their company based off of reviews.

 

How Do Businesses Keep People Engaged Through Social Media?

One of the great things about social media is the fact that it allows businesses to build communities with personality as opposed to being known as a faceless brand.  Once a business succeeds in getting people to opt-in to something, they can work on continually marketing to them, knowing what the audience responds to best.  Here are some examples of ways that businesses are able to keep their fan base engaged…

• Giveaways and exclusive sales for fans only
• Have a community fund to raise money for a charitable cause
• Hosting an online contest via Twitter with a fun prize offered at the end
• Getting your customers to have a stake in your brand by encouraging them to drop you a line at a specific fan email address

So, it would seem that social media must be an effective form of marketing, but is it really?

According to the numbers, the answer is overwhelmingly, ‘YES!’  Social media not only has the power to bring in new business, but social media referrals are also a lot more valuable than most other referrals.  Not only do social media attracted visitors convert better, they also make better customers.

Rachel Walker is a FastUpFront blogging contributor and business consultant. Fastupfront offers fast business loan financing solutions based on business cash flow.