Many companies are wondering how to use social media for marketing purposes. They’ve seen other companies with their Facebook Pages and Twitter accounts, but most don’t quite know what to do with them. We’re going to walk through the basics of getting set up on these social media channels with an understanding of how to use social media for marketing.

How to Use Social Media – Facebook

With over 500 million users and growing Facebook is quickly becoming the social media channel of choice. The most common draw for marketers is the ability to segment and target your specific audience. Just as certain keywords in search drive specific traffic to points within a website, Facebook advertising and marketing strategies can target people by age, sex, language, location, and even interest. If you know that your target audience is primarily females between 35-40 that speak English, live in Indiana, and like quilting, then you can present your message to those women directly. Most companies begin with a simple Facebook Page. Start off by knowing what type of Page you are going to setup. It should be one of the following – Local Business or Place, Company or Organization, Brand or Product, Public Figure (band, artist, author, actor/actress, etc), Entertainment, Cause or Community. From there you’ll be expected to choose a category plus a location (if a place) and any relevant info. Type in the name of your Facebook Page and you’re on your way. Upload an image, announce your page to friends, and enter any additional information you can. Remember when entering your information to get your main search key terms in the about and other information for the page that will be displayed. Link the page back to the relevant website or page (if a product of person) so that you have your search optimization in place to boost your page and website rankings for your target key terms. To setup your Facebook Page use the URL Facebook.com/pages/create.php.
Your next step is to get ‘Like’s for your Page. The most commonly effective way to obtain valuable ‘Like’s for your Facebook Page is to add a widget to your website somewhere (preferably your homepage, and every page of your website if you can). To get the code for your Page’s widget go to developers.facebook.com/docs/reference/plugins/like-box and enter in your Page’s information and criteria for the Like Box (URL of the page, specified width of the box, show faces, etc). Once the code is generated you can copy and paste it within the html of your website or web page (or have your webmaster do it for you).
Running facebook Ads is the next most effective way to get ‘Like’s for your Page. While sending the page to people you are already connected to is a great way to generate quick ‘like’s the point of the Page is to reach an audience you have not already reached. Facebook Advertising is a quick, inexpensive way to obtain these ‘Like’s and continue to market to them at a low cost (or even free). Set aside a budget of $400-$1000 and setup your ads to target your key demographic. Remember those women that like to quilt? You can focus on them in your Facebook Ads and encourage them to ‘Like’ your Facebook Page. To learn more about Facebook Advertising download the robust eBook complete with step-by-step instructions on setting up your Facebook Ad, plus best practices and ideas – Wappow.com/Facebook-Ads/.

How to Use Social Media – Twitter

Before getting started with Twitter remember that not all social media channels are alike, therefore, not all audiences within those channels are going to be the same. While you may see some of the same people following you on Twitter and ‘Like’ing your Facebook Page, the voices coming from those channels should be treated differently, and your audience is going to expect yout o treat them differently. While Facebook is a more interactive social media channel (participating within your community) Twitter is more of an announcement type of channel. There will be some level of conversation within Twitter, but the nature of the application allows for more announcing and less interacting. When setting up a Twitter account for a brand or product remember this and treat your followers accordingly. We recommend setting up an account just for the business as a whole for Brand evangelists to gather information and to feel they are a part of a special group that gets insider information, and setup another account for each specific product or service separately. Your audience will like you company as a whole, but each segment will be interested in a specific product or service. That’s where the other twitter accounts come in handy. While Facebook gives you the ability to select and target these audiences easily, with twitter you will need to find them yourself and speak to them accordingly to keep them engaged.To setup your Twitter account simply go to Twitter.com and fill in your Full Name, Email, and Password. From there you will be asked to select what they call a “Twitter Handle” which will be your username – the account that people will use to follow. A short bio, link to your website, and specific color and designs are all ways you can personalize your account. Once you are setup, you will want to start targeting followers. Unfortunately you cannot advertise of Twitter, so getting Followers is a much more lengthy and involved process than getting ‘Like’s on Facebook. You can add a Twitter Follow Button on your website by adding the code generated with the button by Twitter.
With Twitter, the best way to get started is to just get started. It may feel at times if you are tweeting and you have no followers it is like the tree in a forest that no one is around to hear, but the beauty of the internet is that everything is searchable and noting goes away. Your tweets may not have anyone to read them, or retweet them, but in time people might just find them while searching for something specific, or someone might just come across your tweets and read through the archives of what you have said in the past. So get tweeting, keep tweeting, and remember to utilize your search terms while tweeting to grab any relevant searches. As your twitter follower list grows those tweets will become more valuable.