Social Media is “Pay-it-Forward” Marketing

• Posted on 21st May 2012
• in Social Media
• by Marketing Pro

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If your business’s social marketing efforts don’t seem to be paying off like you’d hoped, try changing the way you think about social media.

Social media breaks the marketing mold. Traditional marketing measures success based on how many leads, views and clicks you’re getting against how much time, money and resources you put in. With social media, you cannot think this way if you want to be successful!

Understand that social media is about choices. Engaging with consumers through social media provides several different options on how you give content to your consumers and how they receive that content. Consumers will engage with companies based on the type of communication that resonates with them the most.

In traditional marketing, the business owner chose exactly how to market to the consumer. But, with social media, the consumers are more in control. Consumers have a choice on how they prefer to interact with businesses. If the ways you’re communicating with your consumers don’t seem to be delivering, try something else, or try a combination of techniques to find what clicks with your consumers.

You must “pay-it-forward” to your customers. This means you need to be providing quality content, information and insight without expecting a payoff. Then you must believe and trust in your consumers, and ultimately, they will pay you back for your quality engagement.

Remember to start small with your social media marketing. Set expectations for you company and come up with a strategy and timeline to keep you on track. Consider hiring social media specialists to handle your accounts, or teaching a couple employees to run your social media campaigns.

The bottom line is that you must know that social media marketing’s purpose is to GIVE to consumers. By providing them with enthusiasm and information, they will be appreciative and you will see results.

Tags: marketing, social media, social media marketing, traditional marketing