You have a website, and you’ve made sure it had relevant keywords and was optimized for search engines. But have you noticed that even though you post on your blog at least once a week and keep your website updated, you still don’t seem to get the search engine rankings you need to bring in throngs of new customers?
Well, these days, a website and a blog are not sufficient to increase your rankings. You must learn to market yourself with social media, and that doesn’t mean tweeting or posting to Facebook 30 times a day. What you’re missing is interaction and relevance. These get your page rank up and get people talking about you.
One way social media can be used to attract new customers is by offering relevant information. This doesn’t necessarily mean information about your business. Those businesses with huge numbers of followers online also provide their customers with information relevant to their industry or even to life in general. Using social media marketing like this allows you to start a conversation with your customers. This conversation will spread electronically, much like word of mouth does in person. And that is what will increase your page views. Fortunately, it isn’t that hard to do.
Posting things that start a dialogue may seem a little difficult at first. One way to start is by going on your Facebook page and announcing sales or discussing a success you had with a customer who was having trouble finding the product they needed.
Another thing you can do is to see what’s trending. If it’s a holiday, for example Veteran’s Day, post a thank you to veterans, Tweet this as well, and don’t forget to mention your store. If people post on your blog or Facebook page, reply to them. Thank people for tweets about your business and follow them. Encourage people to follow you and “friend” you on Facebook. Above all, know your customers!
If you get a new product that your customers will like, post it, tweet it, even email the customers most likely to purchase it. People like the personal touch. They like to know you are thinking about them. After all, that’s why it’s called “social” media marketing—you have to be sociable!
One or two social media sites is no longer enough. If your business is listed on Yelp, put in the relevant information like your store hours and phone number. Create a profile on LinkedIn, and be sure to check all of these sites often. The more you engage your current customers, the more likely you are to get new customers, and the more likely you are to increase your rank in the search engines.
