Many newcomers to the world of Digital Marketing spend a lot of time worrying about their site not getting traffic. Instead of utilizing free, powerful platforms where their niche audience resides, they’re spinning their wheels frantically attempting to outrank their competitors with SEO (search engine optimization).
Instead of ignoring social media sites that are filled with hungry consumers, make sure you add it to your traffic generation strategy. It’s okay (and smart) to ensure your site is optimized to compete, but keep in mind that social marketing has become one of the easiest, most cost-effective, and fastest ways to build an online business.
The Power of Social Media Marketing
It’s hard to imagine what the Internet was like before social sites took root. Early on there were forums, but now there are places built to network with friends and family, share photos and opinions – and get to know people on a whole different level.
While forums were great for sharing tips, it was limited in how much they allowed marketers to build trust and gain the loyalty of their audience. Consumers like to feel they know you, and when you’re letting them engage with you on social media, it helps you overcome that kneejerk reaction some people have to be extra skeptical of anyone selling something.
Social media has evolved to the point where you can share a mix of your personal life (what you feel comfortable with) mixed with your business dealings and you can do it in a wide variety of media formats – including text, images, audio, and video!
Once you put something out there, you have the potential for it to go viral, and that can be anything from being shared among your circle to being publicly shared with those you don’t even know.
You can engage with individuals you’re connected to or lead entire groups on these social networks, which is a great alternative to more sterile threads on forums that used to be your only option.
You do have to be careful that you don’t only rely on social media sites to do all of your online business. Keep in mind that while you may have a presence there, you don’t own the virtual real estate, so at any moment you could be banned or the entire company could get sold or go under, as has happened in the past.
Another great aspect of social media platforms is that they often have a way for you to level up with your usage of them. You can become a verified user, you can use a variety of types of tools on the platform, like live streams or pages and groups – and you can also invest in some of their paid programs, like advertising in the stream of your target audience.