SALES & MARKETING
Boost Your Business with Social Media Marketing
If you're not employing social media to promote your services, you may find you're losing business to competitors who are. August 23, 2011
By Deborah Sexton, Contributing Writer

Have you been dragging your feet to get started using social media as a marketing tool? If so, you may want to check out how many of your competitors already are on Facebook and Twitter. Next, you may want to see if your competitors have gained some of your customers as “fans” or “followers.”

Like it or not, social media has firmly established itself as a viable, valuable marketing tool, and ignoring or hoping it will go away is akin to sticking your head in the sand. The good news is you can get your feet wet for free — it costs nothing to set up a Facebook and Twitter account. Over time, you may find it worthwhile to invest in advertising or staff to help build your base.

Regardless, by entering the social media space, you can position your business for greater awareness and profitability by setting up your shop as an expert and gaining social validation.

Social media marketing simply is a form of relationship marketing. Do you contact your customers via phone and e-mail? Social media is another way to connect with current and potential customers. “People are talking about your services or your competitor’s [services] on social media platforms, so you need to be in that space as well,” says Rodney Blackwell, owner, T-ShirtForums.com, Sacramento, Calif. “You have to persuade them that your business is knowledgeable and that you’re an expert in what they need.”

In social media spaces, people share stories, pictures and videos to build a community. “Everyone who is whispering a company’s name, its brand and its identity are associating it with this sort of community and friendship building that goes much