Using Social Media to Market Your Company Online
Using social media to market your company online is an effective way to reach a modern audience. However, there are some important guidelines you must follow to avoid getting labeled as annoying by your customers and potential customers.
Twitter allows you to send out "tweets" to all of your followers. These tweets have a maximum length of 140 characters, so you have to plan your tweets carefully. To give you an idea of how many characters this is, most cell phone text messages currently allow 160 characters, so a tweet is 20 characters shorter than a text. A good tweet is easy to follow, does not contain excessive, incomprehensible abbreviations and is only 140 characters, not a string of several tweets in a row. To market your business, try to limit Tweets to notifications about special events and sales. Do not share needless information like "Just got some new soap in the bathroom and it smells great!", or your followers are sure to get annoyed and stop following you.
Facebook is different from Twitter. You can set up a page for your business that includes hours, directions and information about who you are and what you do. However, activity still pops up on your friends' walls, so make sure not to post about unimportant things. If you are a retail store and receive a shipment of cool new stuff, take a couple of pictures and post them with a concise description. Also, market upcoming events and sales. Do not ever confuse your business page with a personal page; a business Facebook page is not the place to share news about your pets, neighbors or night on the town.
Social media is a great way to market your business when used correctly. When misused, it is sure to turn customers off, so make sure to only send out meaningful messages that are to the point and well-edited. By keeping your tweets and posts meaningful, customers are much more likely to pay attention when you do post, which can dramatically boost your business's profitability.