Short answer: probably. Getting the right message in front of the right audience is what all marketing is supposed to do, and social media might work for you. It’s not for every business, but you should learn if it’s right for you.

In some cases, not using social media marketing can actually harm a business by either not offering social proof by having optimized accounts, or mismanagement of information. Consult a professional.

The Value of Social Media Marketing for Austin Small Businesses

Whether your business is taking advantage of it or not, social media has forever changed the way that consumers communicate with businesses, and vice versa. Being accessible to your customers – and your prospective clients – via social media is a vital means of developing relationships with them and helping them through your sales process.

“Legendary service is one of the criteria that sets one company apart from its competitors. It’s the mark of a truly authentic company – you just can’t fake caring!” – Kim Garst (@kimgarst)

Success is measured using the same metrics you use for any other marketing activity: traffic, leads, and customers. Counting the number of fans or followers you have can help you understand your social media reach, but the bottom line that determines its success is how many people it drives to your site, how many of them are qualified leads, and how many of them actually become customers.

The Cost of Social Media Marketing in Austin: Your Time or Your Money?

One thing is for certain – social media marketing is never free. Whether you’re spending your own valuable time on it, asking an employee to add it to their workload, hiring a social media employee, or outsourcing to a marketing firm, there is always a cost.

The key is to get the maximum ROI out of the time or money you put into it.

It’s important to remember, however, that ROI doesn’t have to mean revenue. It can, but it can also mean meeting other objectives, such as getting new leads, increasing email marketing subscriptions, or even boosting customer satisfaction. The ROI you end up with is the direct result of how focused your social media marketing strategy is.

The Best Social Media Platforms for Your Small Business

There is no set answer to this question, because you need to have a presence wherever your customers are – and different businesses have different audiences.

One demographic spends most of their time on Facebook, while another really only engages on LinkedIn, and some divide their time equally between three or more sites (others still rely on Google searches, so make sure your SEO is in good shape!). Find out where your customers are, and follow them there.

Yes! A blog is one of those non-negotiables. Apart from all of the benefits it provides on its own, such as increasing your credibility as an industry expert, and providing fresh, keyword-rich content on a regular basis to please the search engines, a blog is a vital component of social media marketing. One of the most effective types of content to post on social media is a link to a blog post. Without fresh blog posts being shared on a regular basis, you won’t have nearly as much to talk about with your fans, and you won’t be driving as much traffic to your site, either. Like it or not, blogging is most likely essential for your digital marketing strategy.

Social Media Marketing Value for B2C or B2B

It’s important for both, but in different ways.

While B2C businesses can focus on more light-hearted, fun social media posts, B2B businesses need to use social media to share valuable industry content.

As a tool for connecting a business with its customers, however, social media is vital to both.

Facebook is the social media platform of choice for over a billion people worldwide. Use it to connect and interact with your audience, and to share your content in a way that encourages your fans to share it as well.

As with all Social Media Marketing, your Facebook Marketing strategy is only as good as your Sales Process and the rest of your Content Marketing.

Twitter has over 313 million users, and can work for sharing your content and connecting with other influencers in your industry. You must be aware that engagement on Twitter has dwindled over the years. You should definitely test your results before putting big money into it. As Matt Cutts says ““When you’ve got 5 minutes to fill, Twitter is a great way to fill 35 minutes.” –  (@mattcutts)

LinkedIn has over 467 million users. It is a great place to share your credentials with the world, but more importantly, it’s the perfect place to interact with your audience online. Using LinkedIn Groups, you can answer questions and contribute to discussions in order to demonstrate your industry thought leadership as well as your willingness to help others generously (update: as of June, 2016, Microsoft Bought LinkedIn, and things continue to evolve, and Groups is no exception. We’ll see how things go. Again, testing and hiring a consultant to inform your strategy is critical).

Though it started out looking promising, Google+ is one platform we don’t recommend using for marketing purposes anymore. It has some SEO Value, but to a large extent, it seems that few people are using it for true social media engagement.

Video Marketing on Youtube is becoming more and more important in the world of social media marketing. YouTube gets over 4 billion views per day! Promote your Austin small business brand’s image through a video, let your audience have a peek behind the scenes at your business, or make a how-to video.

Guest blogging, done correctly, is one of the most effective and widely discussed methods of outreach, but social media can help your outreach efforts significantly, as well. Connect with other influencers in your industry via social media, and then build relationships with them through conversations and helping them to promote their content. Building a relationship in this way before reaching out to ask for a guest blogging opportunity can boost your chances of success greatly – and when your audience sees that you regularly converse with other experts via social media, they’ll see you as an expert, too!

Taking “control” of your brand isn’t really possible anymore, thanks to social media. Whether you’re in the conversation or not, people will talk about you online, and there’s no way for you to “control” what they say. But what you can do is join in those conversations, and influence them by being a part of them. From negative reviews on Yelp to customer complaints on Twitter, the way to influence your audience’s perception of your brand is to participate in the conversations, and steer them in a direction you’re happy with.

Keep this in mind:“Don’t say anything online that you wouldn’t want plastered on a billboard with your face on it.” – Erin Bury (@erinbury)

A company’s social media activities don’t have to all come from the same place – but they do need to be coordinated, and that can be hard to do when each department is doing their own thing. Sending differing messages causes more confusion to customers than anything else – consistency is key.

Just like I stated before, content marketing through social media, and the resulting conversions,  will depend on your audience. The best way to find out what type of content converts most effectively for you is to test, tweak, and test again until you find the right fit.

Timing is everything in social media marketing. The good news is, by using social media you have the opportunity to reach your specific audience in real-time. But even though there are many social media marketing tools you can use to schedule and automate posts to save some time, you’ll also want to keep track of the activity on your social media accounts throughout the day, so that you can provide timely responses to audience questions and comments. Between strategizing, creating and posting content and images, responding to your audience, and checking Google Analytics, social media done right can be a full-time job.

With social media constantly evolving, this depends on variables such as the time and effort you’re putting into social media marketing management, your budget, your audience, your strategy, and whether you’re using paid ads or not. Regardless, it’s important to remember that a good Austin social media marketing campaign is a marathon and not a sprint.

One of the worst mistakes is inconsistency – only posting sporadically, and not responding when consumers reach out to engage. Another biggie is using social media as a place to announce your own content and nothing more, without ever engaging in discussions or adding comments to the post that make your audience want to click or like or share.

Post consistently. Let your passion and personality shine through. Engage in conversations. Answer questions. Encourage audience engagement. Provide valuable content freely, without getting salesy. And be creative.

Social Media Marketing and SEO

A good Austin SEO company will insist that you do Social Media Marketing along with your SEO efforts, simply because Google likes the social signals.

Social signals are not the be all end all of SEO efforts, of course, but they do matter.

Of course, if your sales process isn’t lined up correctly, then SEO and Social Media are both moot points. All 3 have to work in concert.