Social Media for Local and Regional Business: A Primer

A.      Your customers are already on line.

B.      They are google searching for goods and services.

C.      They are either engaged in social media themselves or…

D.      They are talking to people who are getting information through social media.

E.       Putting up your company web presence is easy.

F.       Putting up a company web presence is necessary.

G.     Putting up a company web presence is NOT sufficient.

H.      You have to drive traffic to your business’s web page.

I.        You have to increase the visibility of your web presence in a google search.

J.        Having backlinks to your web page or landing page promotes the value that search engines place on your website or landing page

K.      One objective of social media marketing is to build authentic backlinks.

L.       Another objective of social media marketing is to build keyword association with your webpage.

M.    You want your webpage or landing page to be on the top third of the front page of a relevant google search.

N.     Social media engagement also builds brand awareness

O.     Social media engagement is more than transmitting brand values. It is dynamic.

P.      It allows for a give and take of information, a conversation.

Q.     Social media is a way to interact with your customer to get their input.

R.      That input is valuable in shaping the way you deliver your goods and/or services.

S.       Engaging with your customers, giving them a voice in your business builds trust.

T.       Building the trust of clients or customers makes them advocates of your brand.

U.     Having authentic brand advocates increases the offline word of mouth of your goods and/or services.

V.      Having people talk up your business is called buzz.

W.    How do you attract your social media audience?

X.      How do you convert that audience into a return on investment of money and time?

Y.       How do you decide what social media channels to use?

Z.       How do you analyze all the data to see if you are on the right track?

The author, Philip Stephano, is a social media marketing strategist in Bucks County,  PA.  He is passionate about helping local and regional business around the country to use social media as an effective tool to find local prospects and customers. To learn more about Stephano go to http://about.me/philipstephano