Social media sites can be great tools to help boost visibility and networking resources for your business. If used well, popular sites such as Twitter, Myspace, Facebook, Yelp, Flickr, and Youtube can serve many marketing functions including publicity, advertising, and public relations.

In order for a business to best use social media sites they must define their goals and match those goals with the appropriate site, called a platform. Each platform has certain strengths. Twitter is great as a promotional tool; a business can increase publicity by posting updates about exciting events or new products in real-time. Myspace and Facebook can be used for customer service relations by allowing a business to respond to user questions and concerns. In addition, Facebook can be a great promotional tool as it is commonly used to post invitations to events and will update other users when new content is added to a page. Yelp, although less well known than aforementioned is a fast-growing extremely powerful social media site. By posting a profile with Yelp a business can get customer reviews posted on the site and increased SEO. Flickr and Youtube are distinct from other social media sites because they mostly host video and photo content rather than written. Both sites can be used to post advertisements and gain publicity through product and event documentation or a “behind the scenes” look at the business.

What all the sites have in common is that they are tools to help a business gain increased exposure and trust from their customers. Many businesses and non-profits have seen great results from social media sites. Examples include Starbuck’s Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr accounts, and Target’s Facebook account.

jweissberg Social Media, eMarketing Social Bookmarking, Website Marketing

I recently scanned a copy of our local Orange County business publication.  I was surprised to see a half dozen full page ads from local web design and development competitors. Now I know these ads aren’t cheap so I decided to do a little research into back issues to see how long they had each run. Again I was surprised to see that most of them have been running for several months or longer. I take this as strong evidence that the ads are generating leads and projects for these companies. In our current recession not many business people would continue running expensive ads unless they produce results.

So what does this mean?  With all the focus on Search Engine Optimization on-site and off-site techniques we sometimes forget that traditional marketing can also be effective even for a web-based company. As you consider ways to attract prospects to your website don’t forget to include traditional marketing tools and techniques. Networking groups, print ads, vehicle wraps, graphics and decals, post cards, newsletters, business letters, and good old fashioned business cards can all enhance your company’s profile and generate new business.

So keep building those back links,  running pay-per-click ads, and adding keyword rich content to your site, but remember to also market off-line. Who knows, maybe getting up from the computer occasionally and meeting some new business people in your community will be a healthy and fun change of pace.

jweissberg Search Engine Optimization, eMarketing Search Engine Optimization, Website Marketing