How to: Get a Head Start on Social Media Marketing

If you have been thinking of marketing your brand or products using social media but have not gone about doing it, what are you waiting for?

Don’t ever let technology or unfamiliarity pose as a barrier to your progress.

To help you get a head start on social media marketing, here are a few tips that I think are essential for success.

1. Understand Your Consumers

Consumers belong to different groups and understanding their group characteristics can help a lot in deciding which social media tool to use for your messages. It serves, as a good reminder that just because social media is hot does not mean all its tools are suitable for you.

Take a look at the Technographics ladder taken from Groundswell, a book written by Charlene LI and Josh Bernoff.

Say your target consumers are “Creators”, what do you do and what do you engage in? One thing you can conclude from this is that your consumers are social media savvy. They are willing to participate and that’s good news for you!

Get them to make videos about your brand, create ad banners and badges for them to place in their own blogs and let them design your next packaging. The possibilities are endless but the key is to let your consumers promote the brand for you.

Pringles Design Your Own Can

Charity: Water Ad Banners

Nonetheless, you will realize that most consumers fall under “Joiners”. They visit social media networking sites, read blogs and comments and watch videos. They don’t exactly generate much content but they have presence online and are receptive to the media.

What you need to do is basically to engage them. Be where they are and get them interested to watch, read and hear about you.