Fanminder Blog

Here is a quick guide to help you take those first steps to social marketing. But before getting into specific recommendations about what to say, here are some recommendations on how to say things:

1. Watch your Tone- No Marketing Fluff Allowed.  With parenting, telling your children that you are the best and dictating what they should do often backfires. However, providing them with guidance and educating them to become self-sufficient experts can lead them to choose to come to you and make the right decision. The same goes for social marketing.

2. Be Engaging.  Nothing can be more frustrating for a parent than endlessly talking to a child who sits stony-faced, acting like a wall. It can be just as frustrating with social media — reaching out and communicating, and encountering nothing but crickets.  With social media, you’ll want to make the way you post things spark interest and encourage conversation

3. Be Responsive.  Social marketing, like parenting, is not a one-way communication street. Even if you have the greatest things to say, unless you also listen, respond, acknowledge and appreciate, your expert voice will eventually be tuned out. When people comment or get involved in the community of followers you establish, respond to them.

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When Craig Newmark founded Craigslist in San Francisco in 1996, no one could have predicted that the site would one day host an estimated 15 million monthly visitors from more than 300 communities worldwide.

The online marketplace features classified ads and help wanted ads from regular folks in every major metropolitan area in the world, as well as many smaller cities and suburbs. It’s a simple tool with which to do effective, targeted marketing, and it’s perfect for today’s cash- and time-strapped entrepreneur. After all, whether they feature products, services or people, ads on Craigslist are ideally suited for small businesses because they’re:

1. Local
2. Targeted
3. Searchable
4. Easy to read
5. Free

Learn how to market your small business on craigslist.

Advertise According to Geography. Despite its simplicity, marketing on Craigslist requires some basic planning and strategy. The first step is deciding in what cities you want to market your business.

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There are still a number of business people, executives, owners and more, that have doubts about social media as a business driver.

Part of that skepticism has to do with the fact the medium is quite new and participating in it requires a different approach from traditional marketing efforts. Part of it has to do with the fact that social media thinkers and advocates have never been very good at illustrating a definitive tie to business success through their medium of choice.

Business.com’s Social Media Best Practices: Question & Answer Forums report released two weeks ago talked about statistics around forums like LinkedIn Answers, Yahoo Answers and Business.com’s own Business.com Answers. The report had a hidden gem in it.

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Here are 5 useful tips to help avoid panic when thinking about launching a presence on social media platforms.

1. Have a Plan.  Don’t just get on the social media bandwagon because everyone else is doing it. Does it make sense for your business? Is it where your customers are?

Jason Falls, social media consultant and strategist at SocialMediaExplorer.com, said the first thing to realize is social media is not for every business. “Understanding that is going to take a lot of the panic out for small business owners,” he said.

2. Take Small Steps with a Goal in Mind.  Building a loyal customer base using social networks such as Facebook and Twitter doesn’t happen overnight. At the same time, this approach might not be the ideal tactic for a small business that needs to move fast. Understand what your small business can get out of social media. For example, is it to sell products or build relationships with customers?

Falls said that deciding on taking small steps depends on how fast a business owner needs to see results. However, he stressed that social media is about building relationships and that takes time.

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Despite Facebook privacy changes and serious cases of Twitter Fail Whale, social media use has increased astronomically since this time last year: During December 2009, global users spent an average of five hours on social networking sites, up from three hours in December 2008. That’s an 82% increase.

Nielsen just released a report on its blog detailing increased social media use, and the results are impressive, while not exactly shocking. Some highlights:

- Social networking sites are the most popular online destinations globally (based on the amount of time people spent there in December), with games and instant messaging coming in second and third, respectively.

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