What are the right ingredients for getting people in cyberspace talking about your brand? Start with the proper balance of fee-for-service and social media marketing channels, then repeat your messages liberally and often. Always remember to proclaim the specific benefits that differentiate your products or services from the competition. You can accomplish all of this through the top five methods of generating buzz.
#1 Issue Press Releases
Just about anything that happens in your business is cause for an announcement, and an opportunity to create awareness about who you are and what you have to offer. From the initial business opening, to new hires and product line expansions, you can tell about it all in press releases. Though often overlooked, this simple form of communication, when properly distributed, is a great first start to getting noticed.
While there are many press release services online, PRWeb.com is worth exploring. This company has a menu of press release products at varying costs and will even write it for you if you need assistance. Their advantage is wide, efficient distribution based upon your selection of online news sources and region. A well written press release with mass appeal will easily be picked up by Yahoo News as well as other prominent news sites.
Just as with other social media marketing activities, though, scheduling is important. Plan on sending out at least one press release a month. This constant, predictable conveyance of information will keep your brand name and benefits fresh in the reader's mind and serve to maintain the level of awareness you need.
#2 Write and Distribute Articles
Write articles about your products, services, or field of expertise, or hire a writer. In the body of the articles, use keywords or keyword phrases that you have discovered generate good search results. Look for sites that will publish your articles. The top three on a list in an article by Dr. Ralph Wilson of Web Marketing Today were EzineArticles.com, GoArticles.com, and ArticleDashboard.com. Wilson advises limiting your submissions to five general interest sites and a few special niche interest sites. He also states that articles are an effective way of promoting websites, both through content and in the author's bio at the end of the article.
#3 Blog on Your Site
Blogging is another essential function for an online business, and a blog that resides on your website can get you far more traffic than one with an unrelated domain name. If it isn't easily possible to add a blog to your main website, you can at least include links to your blog so that you establish the relationship between the two sites.
Blog posting should be done no less than once a week and as frequently as seven times a week or more, depending upon your content and goals. Hire a writer or give the task to an employee so that you can ensure frequent and consistent blog article postings. Keyword research and usage is as important in blogs as it is in articles. Make sure that keywords chosen will be ones that can assist help you reach you social media marketing goals by virtue of their popularity and relationship to your business.
#4 Use Social Media to Spread the Word
Each new blog post and article publication is worthy of a tweet on Twitter, a link to your Facebook business page, and a Facebook status update in the least. Use other networking sites such as LinkedIn and Digg to further spread the word. Other sites to consider are StumbleUpon, which is akin to a search engine for finding web content, and Delicious.com, which is a social media bookmarking service.
#5 Publish on YouTube
Create a product or service "how-to" demonstration on video or in an Adobe Flash slideshow. In addition to posting your work on YouTube, you can also link it to your blog, to a "how to" article about you are planning to publish, and to Twitter and Facebook.
Think about how many different communication tools you can employ to get your messages across to your target market. Using audio, video and photos enhances text every time, and provides stand-alone communications for YouTube, further extending your reach.
One of the most important questions to ask yourself regarding social media marketing is, "How many different ways can I deliver my message?" By using all appropriate online channels, adhering to a posting and message release schedule, and incorporating audio and video, you can succeed in generating buzz about your business.
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