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Introduction Social media marketing is more than a buzzword. It’s more than just a Benefits of Social Media passing trend or fad. By all indications, the use of social media for mar- Marketing: keting and customer engagement is a new factor in the marketing world, and it’s definitely here to stay. Engagement with customers through social media outlets has moved from the field of early adopters and into Generates expo- the general world of online marketing, with more than one in five small sure for my busi- business owners reporting that they interact with customers via at least ness: 88% one social networking channel or platform. Increases traffic/ subscribers: 72% Improved search engine rankings: 62% In particular, small business owners recognize the benefits of engaging with their customers and prospective customers via various social media Improved search platforms. The benefits reported by small business owners and market- engine rankings: ers who use social network marketing include increased exposure and 62% brand awareness, increased traffic to their main websites and improved search engine marketing. Despite the wider engagement Generated quali- of small businesses with social fied leads: 51% media marketing, many small business web site owners are hesitant to fully engage. By a large margin, the most preva- lent barriers to full adoption of Reduced overall social 2011 media marketing by marketing ex- website owners are questions penses: 49% about integrating the social media engagement with their existing small business web site and current marketing strategy. Thanks to the rapidly evolving technology that drives social sharing and social media marketing, even those most experienced in the arena Reduced overall find themselves constantly adapting and changing the way they use marketing ex- social networks as part of their marketing mix. In just the past 12 to 18 penses: 49% months, new players have emerged in the social sharing field, add- ing more avenues of engagement. These new players include mobile marketing platforms and geo-specific social platforms, such as Four- - 2011 Social Media Marketing and Industry Report: How square and Groupon. A strategy that uses best practices in managing and Marketers Are Using Social Media to Grow Their Busi- integrating the social media presence with the current website can help nesses; Michael A. Stelzner; April 2011 website owners control their online presence, shape their brand image and reap the most benefit from all of their market- ing efforts. One of the earliest lessons that any marketer learns is the value of crafting a carefully coordinated message and ensur- ing that every communication leaving the company conforms to that message. Coordinated messaging is the lynchpin of creating a brand, and it’s one of the most vital aspects of integrating social media marketing into your existing website and marketing strategy. These seven steps ensure that a company’s social media message is in sync with the rest of the organi- zation’s marketing and branding strategy. Best Practices: 7 Steps to Integrating Social Media with Your Current Website 1. Define goals and objectives for social media marketing. Many website owners jump into social media mar- keting feet first without any idea of what they hope to accomplish. Engaging without a goal is like head- ing off on vacation without knowing where you’re going. You may have fun along the way, but you’ll have no way of knowing when you’ve reached your destination, or even if you’re heading in the right di- rection. Before sending out a single tweet or updat- ing a single Facebook status, identify the company’s social media marketing goals and objectives. 2. Identify the most useful channels. Each of the major social media outlets has its own character and its own best use. Get to know the characteristics and best uses for each of them so that you can decide which are most useful in your marketing mix. Facebook took over Twitter is the second LinkedIn is a pro- Yelp and other geo- as the number one most commonly used fessional network specific social net- social media chan- social media market- that allows business working tools are most nel for businesses of all sizes ing tool among most businesses, people to connect with one useful for putting brick-and- in 2011. Businesses can now and is the most commonly another. A LinkedIn profile mortar businesses on the map. connect with customers via used tool for small business helps your business connect It allows customers and users to Facebook Pages, which include web site owners. Tweets allow with other businesses and B2B post reviews and impressions of many connection tools that for instant sharing and quick salespeople. If your company the business so that others can are especially useful to small communication with followers provides services to other busi- access them. Emerging mobile and medium size businesses. of your business. The shelf life nesses, a LinkedIn profile is a technology is making these Facebook is best for connecting of a tweet is short – as little as worthwhile investment of social social networking tools increas- directly to customers, and is a a matter of minutes – and with media marketing resources. ingly useful for small busi- vital part of most B2C social the 140 character limit, tweets ness web sites with real-world media marketing plans. With a are best suited for sending out locations. If your business is in user base of more than 800 mil- quick updates, teasers and an- Westchester, NY, for example, lion, Facebook gives a company nouncements that point follow- and you want to attract local an enormous marketing reach. ers back to your website for business, reviews on Yelp can Facebook status updates stay on more information. help attract local Westchester the page until they’re updated, customers to your website and making the platform a good to your real world storefront. one for announcements with a This is becoming more and medium-term shelf-life. Face- more useful as mobile apps book also offers widgets and recognize geo-tagging and an- scripts to make it easier for your nounce your presence to those website visitors to connect and within the same geographic share content from your website location. with their friends. 3. Lock down your accounts. Once you’ve established which social media channels you want to use, lock down your accounts. To keep branding con- sistent across all of your marketing channels, register your business name or website name as the user name on all of the accounts you register. If your business is Westchester Coffee, register westchestercoffee.com as a domain name, @west- chestercoffee as a Twitter user and lock down your Facebook profile with a Westchester Coffee Page. If you post a blog, post it at your main domain, or register westchestercoffee.blogspot.com or westchestercoffee.wordpress.com. Note: Best web practices suggest that you should register accounts and domain names even if you have no current plans to use them. That allows you to lock them away and prevent others from using them against you or capitalizing on your search engine marketing efforts. 4. Define a publishing workflow. A publishing calendar and matrix helps ensure that all of your messaging is consistent, and allows you to make links be- tween them so that each item you publish on any platform drives traffic to your primary online real estate – your website. Your company website is the one piece of the web that you completely control, so you want to drive traffic back to it for the full story. The simplest publishing matrix is a spreadsheet that holds information on each of your social media ac- counts, including user name, password, person responsible for it and items published to it. 5. Create links between all of your channels. This is where the integration begins. Whether you’re implementing a social media marketing strategy to use with your existing website or creating a new website as part of an overall marketing plan, it’s vital that all of the pieces link to each other and hang together as a whole. The user profile for each social media site should link back to your main website.The email address for each user profile should go to a company email address – [email protected], [email protected], and so on. In addi- tion, wherever possible, include links to your other social media profiles to connect them all to each other. 6. Create links from your website to all of your social media channels. Remember, though, that social media is about enhancing communication, and communication is two-way. Every page on your website should also link back to all of your social media profiles in a clearly identifiable way. The best way to do this is to place a block in your website template that includes buttons to allow website visitors to follow you on Twitter, Friend and Like you on Facebook and link with you on LinkedIn. If you post videos to YouTube, link to your YouTube channel. If you blog, use blog widgets that allow your users to easily share your content with their own followers and friends. Some ways to build connections between social media and your website include: • Share This widgets for various social media sites on your content allow website visitors to tell share your content with their friends and followers • Activity-based publishing tools allow visitors to publish their comments, reviews and other website activities to Facebook, Twitter and other social media outlets • Email This links allow your website visitors to mail links to your website to their friends via their own address books on Gmail or other mail sites 7.