The internet has gone a long way to influence the way we live, and the advent of social media has even made the impact more significant. As opposed to the early misconception that social media is an instrument to meet and reunite with people, businesses have been able to benefit from the enormous number of social media platform users that is currently in billions, to help in marketing their brand. It is therefore not surprising that social media marketing is one of the most effective forms of online marketing.
The popularity of social media marketing, however, does not translate to the optimal use of the strategy as many online marketers especially those that are into affiliate marketing programs still find it a bit difficult to tap into the wealth of opportunities inherent in social media marketing.
Below are some simple yet effective ways of using the social media to market yourself and your brand to create more awareness and generate more sales. These methods cover the likes of Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Pinterest.
Create a Facebook Page
One of the common mistakes made by internet marketers is to use their personal Facebook page for Facebook marketing. While this might not be entirely wrong, some elements of unprofessional-ism are portrayed. Creating a Facebook page is, therefore, the first tip to using Facebook to promote your brand.
Engage your Customers
Customers here will include existing and potential customers. It is important that you regularly engage your customers just as any good business will do. This ensures that they almost always see your postings and updates, and they can subsequently patronize your brand.
Use Images
Facebook is probably the most visited social media platform, and many users are not patient enough to go through long texts as compared to when they see captivating images. This explains why images have been described as the most interesting type of post not only on Facebook but other social media platforms. Images bring likes, comments and shares that help to promote you and your brand.
Show that you care about your customers
Customers and Facebook fans love to be shown some attention and the only way to do this is to portray your business not just as a business but as a person. It is important always to remember that social media remains social media, and no amount of business will take that away.
Create contests
This is a fun and exciting way of creating engagement and promoting yourself of Facebook. Different games can be used to engage your customers. It is however advised that you seek the help of an expert in doing this.
Post about yourself
The primary aim here is to promote you, and this should not be forgotten. After engaging your fans and establishing some relationship, it is important that you post about you or your brand. All the necessary details about the products should be published, with a call to action incorporated into the post.
Use Geo-targeted ads
This is a way of ensuring that your posts are directed at your target audience as opposed to been seen by people that might not necessarily need your product.
Tweet tips relating to your product/brand
This is an important part of affiliate marketing as it serves as a form of help to your customers, concerning some tips relating to you or your brand as the case may be.
Tweet Questions
Some questions could be tweeted to provoke some emotions in your followers, which encourages some response and create engagement with your fans and customers.
Tweet news relating to your brand
There is always news relating to you and what you sell and tweeting about such news especially when your fans can easily relate to them, would help you to market yourself.
Tweet using hashtags
Using hashtags when you tweet will contribute to making your tweets more visible and easily found by persons looking for related subjects.
Other ways of using Twitter to market yourself include
– Tweeting about events you or your products are involved in.
– Tweet using @mentions
– Create with contests, offers, and sweepstakes.
Pinterest is another social media platform that has become popular, ranked as the fourth largest social media platform. It aims to connect different people using images, and, therefore, requires some creativity from users.
Ways of using Pinterest for social media marketing include:
– The use of hashtags.
– The creation of contests and giveaways for followers.
– Cross-promotion using a Facebook Pinterest tab that allows you to get your updates on Pinterest appears on Facebook.
Other social media platforms that can be used for social media marketing are YouTube and Linkedin.
The use of social media for internet affiliate marketing and internet marketing and one can exploit as many ways as one knows.