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Social media is currently the hot topic in the business circle.
Watching how Starbucks and Dell work its way up to achieve social media glory keeps us wondering how the hell did these big brands produce such a powerful marketing effect.
While most people are still trying to figure out the gist of social media or are skeptical about it, many marketers, PR personnel and businesses are already starting to use it as their new age marketing tool.
If you are a beginner in social media, don’t fret! There are many ways to get started and here’s one:
Step 1: Find a Blog to Read
Social Media 101: Reading is probably the best way to build interest and knowledge. Most importantly, this step should not be a short-lived activity. There are no lack of great blogs out there, like Penn Olson =) to help you get in tune with the social media world.
You might realize that awesome blogs are not hard to find, but the number can get a little bit overwhelming. To solve this problem, use RSS feeds to organize your favorite blogs and get updated with their new content through just one channel .
Step 2: Start using Social Media as your Daily Tool
Understanding social media in theory is great but meaningless if you don’t start using the tools. If you have not, sign up for a Facebook and Twitter profile as they are currently the trending social media sites. When exploring these social sites, keep a look out for the following:
- Observe how each feature works. E.g Status Update, Applications, Trending Topics, Real Time Search
- Think about how these features can be put into marketing practices
- Search for great companies and study how they make use of the sites to promote their brand
- Find out what branding image does each of these companies portray in the sites
Don’t forget to make friends and have fun!
Step 3: Launch a Simple Social Media Campaign
You can start a simple social media campaign by selling yourself (personal branding)! If you don’t feel comfortable, you can always help out a small business. The main objective of this step is to help you gain some experience in social media marketing.
Social media marketing requires you to know your stuff well – your company, products and most vitally, your customers. Sure, you can outsource the trouble to social media experts but there are many reasons why you should not. Social media marketing is about knowing and listening to your consumers because no one needs to understand them as much as you do.
Summary
Social media sites used to be labeled as a fad. But with increasing usage by leisure users, politicians and businesses, social media has sneaked up to be a big part of our life.
To all marketers and businesses, “Get started if you haven’t! Ride the social media wave and be a Social Media Winner. Don’t be crushed by it!”
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