Can You Market Your Business For Free Using Social Media?

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Marketing has always been important to business success, but with the Internet becoming the go-to place for so many people Internet marketing has become a semi-permanent hot topic for business owners. A particular segment of Internet marketing is social media marketing, which sounds deceptively easy. All you need to do is get on a social media platform, and soon all your regulars will be helping you spread the word about your business… right?

The Advantages of Social Media

Social media does have some distinct advantages for business owners. It’s free to create an account for instance, and the inter-connected nature of social media makes it possible to reach customers and followers you never would have in another way. For business owners who want to go the extra mile it’s even possible to pay for advertising space on platforms like Facebook, which guarantees more people will see your business (though it doesn’t guarantee more followers or more customers). Social media also provides a great way to get feedback from followers that you can incorporate into your business, and into your marketing endeavors.

The Costs of Social Media

Social media is deceptively simple-looking. For a business to succeed it needs to have well-written posts, attractive photos, and engaging videos that it can upload. In short a business needs to create content that’s going to be spread if it intends to draw in new followers. It doesn’t cost money, but it does cost time, effort, and there’s a learning curve that can be brutal.

Creating content that spreads and gets you new followers is really, really hard to do. Worse it can sometimes come down to luck rather than to any careful planning. So while social media doesn’t cost a business money it does cost time, effort, and it has to be updated regularly in order to remain a viable platform. At least one update per day is recommended so that followers don’t forget a page exists entirely.

The other option is, of course, to pay professionals to manage a business’s social media. This might take a chunk out of the marketing budget, but with the increased reach that social media professionals can provide a business it should be thought of more as an investment than a cost. The business saves time and effort, and the success of a professionally-managed campaign should recoup the fee the professionals charge and then some.

In The End: You Need To Stand Out

The success of social media marketing is just like the success of any other marketing campaign; did you stand out, and did you draw in customers? Whether you make a goofy video about your store that becomes a viral sensation, or you offer an extra 20 percent off of purchases for people who Like or follow your page, the key is that you need to find what works for you. This could take some time, but in the end can result in sales spikes that are more than worth the effort.

For more information on how social media can help your business’s Internet marketing strategy simply contact us today!