Let’s set the record straight. You need social media in this day and age to advertise your business. But, I also need to add that it is not about direct ROI (return on income) its about brand recognition and getting your name out there… Social media helps lend credibility to your company as a viable brand. If you expect to get rich over night only doing social media you are in for a rude awakening.
Twitter, Facebook, Instagram – they all help your company via visibility. People often check to see if you are present the same way they look you up on Google for reviews and a presence there. They may even go to Facebook for your address or phone number.
All of it is just a piece of a marketing funnel… and you need the entire funnel, not just one piece and certainly not just a short period of time. The world is flooded with businesses just like yours. The idea behind social media is to help yours stand out and express its individuality and confirm why people should trust and go with you when buying or using a service.
The main complaint we hear from clients is “But we aren’t getting sales directly off of our social media. Maybe we should just stop.” While you are more than welcome to of course, it is a bad idea. Continued presence makes an impression of success. Likes, though fairly meaningless, make the impression that other people like the page and they should too. Success breeds success.
Mixing Social Media, Fresh Original Content on your web site and SEO (search engine optimization) along with some paid marketing efforts is the mix to go for.
Create fresh original content by way of regular well key worded blogs, spicing up on page content to keep the crawlers crawling, and doing great on page SEO targeting the audience you are looking to capture is key. Add to that directed marketing efforts like direct paper mailings and online AdWords ads which push people to your site where your message and products reside – now that is where your ROI comes in. That is where the right combination = money in your bank account.
We all want instant results. While paid ads can deliver that, it is the organic natural formation of SEO strategies that last over time. Blogs get shared, links built, your name pops up more and more. You move up in the ranks of Google, Yahoo, Bing and other search engines.
When the payment on pay per click ads stop – so do the ads and so does the traffic. With organic SEO, even if you stopped all efforts today… results would stay and possibly still keep building over time.
If you want your business to succeed online you have to give it time, effort, consistency, and yes invest some money into it as well. Very few businesses operate solely online. If you operate a service business and expect to sit back and just watch the customers roll in with no effort on your part other than hiring a marketer, you are in for a short rough ride. Nothing beats great word of mouth advertising. Great products, service, and overall attitude of the company will make a company while the opposite surely also holds true.
Interested in learning more about how you can grow your business online? Talk with us here at Sarah Barendse Creative www.sarahbarendse.com or Visit our sister site www.damonazdesign.com 239-244-8350. DZ@damonazdesign.com
Though not every connection will be a hacker, sometimes you will see pinged tower locations for cell phone use, but if you don’t recognize a location, better safe than sorry.
