You probably interact with several different social networks. As a business owner, you are probably familiar with online marketing because you recognize the need for social media marketing. The reality is that since everyone else is doing it online, you need to do it as well. If you don’t have that approach, you will be left in the dust and everyone else will move past you. However, what you may not realize is that there are several different types of social networks that may benefit your business.

The popular social networks and then some

The chances are that you are involved with the popular social networks, such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. You may also be interacting using Instagram and YouTube. On the other hand, you may not even be aware of the other social networks and how amazing they may be for your brand and for your business. What you may not realize is just how much there is to social media and how much more you may be able to get out of it than you are aware of right now.

The different types of social networks do all sorts of different things and help you to accomplish what you want to accomplish in many different creative ways.

• Social networks: The function and purpose of a social network are really simple. Social networks connect people to each other. That is exactly why they are called social networks. Social networks can benefit your business in several different ways, such as allowing you to do market research, generating leads, building relationships, etc.
• Discussion forums: A discussion forum is a great place to get involved if you want to share your opinions with other people, hear their opinions, and really get a stimulating conversation going. All sorts of interesting nuggets of information can emerge as a result of a discussion that you have on a discussion forum.
• Networks that share media: A network that shares media does just that. It is a network where people can share all types of media, such as photos, videos, and any other type of media that you can imagine. This type of network can benefit your business in similar ways to what happens with social networks. They can help you to build your brand and to build relationships, engage your target audience members, and generate leads, among a whole list of benefits. In many cases, these types of media are more effective than words (if used in combination, your content will be highly effective). It is important to remember that many people are visual, which is why they respond so well to visual content.
• Content curation and bookmarking networks: If you are searching for new content, this is the type of network to do it. There is a good chance that not all of the content that you share is original content. You may be curating some of your content, which is an intelligent part of your online content marketing strategy. There are networks that can help you to get where you are going in this regard. This type of network can benefit your business in several different ways, including increasing your brand awareness, engaging your target audience members, and increasing traffic to your website.
• Networks where you can leave product and/or service reviews: This is an important type of network because other business owners count on your opinion and similar opinions from other people. The fact is that everyone considers and buys a variety of products and services. Why not go a step further and share your opinion about what you have researched and purchased? It will certainly help the business owners if you do so.
• Networks for publishing content: Content is the bread and butter of all businesses. No matter what you do and what you offer, the fact is that you will need to tell other people about those offering and your brand. Otherwise, the person on the other end will not know about you and if they don’t know about you, you will not be able to establish a relationship with them and they will not buy anything from you at any point. Content marketing is a necessary approach for all businesses. The networks that specifically enable business people to effectively share their content for maximum impact are a critical tool to the success of those businesses (yours included).
• Networks where people with common interests can get together: This type of network can apply to personal or professional interests. They are very effective and very successful on the whole. Because this type of network helps people to build relationships, that also means that you will be engaging the other person and build your brand.
• Networks where people can shop for products: Since shopping is necessary and everyone does it, this type of network will be around for a very long time. Similarly to the other networks that have been discussed here, this type of network can also build brand awareness, enhance engagement, and sell products to other people.
• Networks where people can trade: This one is probably obvious. If you have things that you don’t want or need anymore, there is a very good chance that there is another person who does need and want it. It is a great way to clean up and build some sort of relationship at the same time.
• Networks where people can be anonymous: One of the most attractive features of the Internet for many people is the idea that they are anonymous. Before the Internet, many people were reluctant or afraid to communicate using their own name. Now they can hide behind anonymity, which feels safer. Of course, it is not always the right approach to take but it is how many people feel.

Conclusion

Even if you don’t get involved with all of the different types of social networks, it is important that you are aware of their existence and understand exactly what they are for and how they work. It is interesting to note that most of the different types of social networks have common threads: building brand awareness, engaging audience members, and establishing new relationships. It is only then that you will be in the position to reject them if you don’t feel that they will work effectively for your business.

Social media

Social media is the combination of online communications channels committed to group-oriented input, communication, information sharing, and relationship. Various types of applications and websites which are devoted to social networks, blogging, forums, wikis and social bookmarking form the different types of social media. The most common types are Facebook, YouTube, Google+, WhatsApp, Twitter, QQ, WeChat, Qzone, OLX, Instagram, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Skype, Viber, Snapchat, Pinterest, MySpace, Meetme, Meetup, Mixi, Tout, Douban, Flickr, Buzznet, Wehearit, and Friendster These social websites have approximately 100,000,000 registered users. Although there are different types of social media they use many common features such as Consumers create service-oriented profiles for the website and applications that are planned, and upheld by the association. The user-created material, such as digital images, posts, videos, comments and data shared through online interfaces. All type of Social media is interactive internet applications which enable the growth of online social networks by linking a user’s profile with those of other persons or groups.

Users usually contact social media facilities via web-based tools on computers, or download services from internet applications to their cell phones, through these services, users can generate highly collaborating platforms through which persons, groups, and establishments can segment, co-create, debate, and revise user-created data or pre-built content displayed online. They present considerable and prevalent changes to communiqué between trades, establishments, societies, and personalities.It has modified the communication between the persons and large establishments. Researchers study these changes and new Technologies are being introduced as a result of these changes. It is different from the traditional print and electronic media in various aspects, such as grasp, customer, value, reach, occurrence, interaction, usage, nearness, and durability. Its channels operate in a dialogic mode of transmission whereas old-style media used monologic transmission mode.

Facebook is widely used in all the countries, 84 percent of young Americans are its user. Almost 60 percent teenagers have social media profiles, a majority of people spend a minimum of two hours daily on social networking sites and the time spend on these sites is greater than the time spent on another type of sites. The total time spent on social sites in the USA was 66 billion minutes in 2012 now it reached to 121 billion minutes. It has become a source of professional prospects and financial profits.

Social media has a lot of good and bad effects. It gives a chance of linkage with actual or virtual groups, and it is a real publicizing instrument for businesses, financiers, charitable establishments, as well as support groups, politicians, and administrations. Its substantial use is also proved as a cause of sadness, cyberbullying online persecution and wandering.

We cannot define social media by its aptitude to fetch people together, according to this description telegraph and telephone can be its types, Actually social media is typically used to pronounce social networking sites such as: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Snapchat, Instagram and Wechat permits their use to make their private Profiles to share ideas, images, videos, to talk with each other and update each other with the new things, events and happenings while doing their daily deeds and routine jobs.

Peculiarity of Social media-The Content Spread like Virus

Sometimes contents that are posted on social sites have likely to spread like a virus on social networks. The users will reshare the content posted by some other user to their social network, resulting in further sharing. Posts like North Korea Atomic Bomb Explosion, fast-breaking news like the news of Michel Jackson death have crashed down the internet servers as this news was rapidly shared and re-shared by the people who use social networking sites. This is the concept of spreading of a viral disease from one infected person to other persons. Some individuals, Groups, and Organizations use this Viral Spreading of a news as an effective way of Publicity.

Use of Cellular Applications

The usage of Mobile phone to access sites is a great factor in the popularity of these sites, Now it is more easy, private and cheap to use the social media than before, the Smartphone has made the internet a very “Handy” thing to use by the young generation. Now youngsters pass more time doing interactions on social media sites than to pass time on watching TV. Every type of sites can be reached easily with the help of the smartphone, contents can be added, shared, send, received, status updated voice and video calls can be made more easily without the use of desktop computers or laptops. Use of Wi-Fi technology has enabled to use an internet connection by the whole members of a family. All the family members can use the internet sites according to their own likes and dislikes, a flexibility of time and Privacy. The mobile applications like WhatsApp, Skype, are used widely to make video calls, YouTube is used to see videos, Facebook is used to share videos, images, texts and status updating by the mobile users. Mobile social media mentions the use of media on mobile phone sets such as smartphones. Mobile applications let the formation, interchange and spread of user-created content. Location and time sensitivity are the important factors to access the social media by mobile devices.

Business perspective

Location and Time sensitiveness gave mobile devices an edge on desktop computers in offering companies to expand their businesses by marketing and advertising by it. Mobile utensils can be used for investigation, communiqué, sales advancements or concessions, and affiliation growth programs.

E-Commerce

Social sites use sociable plans, creating stages that are equally helpful for users, industries, and the nets with the help of e-commerce, or online consumptions. The users post the remarks about a company’s product or service with their online friends and associates. The company profits because it gains awareness about how their product or service is regarded by customers. Applications such as Amazon.com and Pinterest influence a mounting tendency in the acceptance and approachability of e-commerce, or online consumptions.

Social media has become an integral part of our day-to-day lives. Businesses of all size and shapes have started making the most of available mediums. Today we will try to anatomize tips on social media for small businesses. There are a plethora of small businesses eyeing social medium to promote their business / services. However, majorly these small businesses are failing or not being able to make optimum use of social media for their business growth. There are many theories and strategies on how to effectively use social media for established brands, but the topic social media for small businesses is seldom addressed. According to Digital state of eMarketing India 2017 Octane Research:

60% small businesses promote their business on social media. 50% focus on SEO and 35% use multichannel marketing funnel.
70% small businesses consider content strategy as their primary marketing activity.
52% business owners are using social media as to efficiently address customer engagement.
More than 20% of business owners said that they are making 50% plus profit using social media.

The primary reasons for the low turnout are uncertainty on an application of social media, calculating return on investment and creditor employees / stakeholders to clinch social media. It is important to address the elephant in the room and analyze how beneficial is social media for small businesses.

Social media for small businesses is a great way for emerging businesses to generate lead and build a reputation. If regularly updated, social media can deliver more results as compared to traditional mediums. Social media for small businesses gives brands an edge of control over the content that they want to post. Also, since social media is a two-way dialogue process, it helps businesses to instantly identify what is benefitting them. Social media for small businesses also helps generate Word of Mouth, which is one of the best tools for emerging businesses.

Social Media for small businesses | 10 Tips to effectively use Social Media

Define your Target Audience
The first and foremost important part that small businesses should focus on is to define their target audience. This helps small businesses to device their social media strategy accordingly. The target audience should be defined basis age group, sex, location, users' online behaviors, their likes, interests, and preferences. For niche products, business owners can even target users based on their birthdays, anniversaries and important milestone. Audience targeting plays a very serious role in the outcome of the results. For eg: a local shop selling footwear should not target users with interest in entertainment. The shop definitely will not get the desired results.

Set achievable goals
Overnight success is a myth. Small businesses must understand this basic fact. Generally, when a new business starts selling on social media, there is palpable excitation is achieving more than set targeted sales. Businesses need to set goals which are upwards and forward. To achieve strict goals, small businesses start updating social feed with multiple updates in shorter duration. This leads to user's disinterest in the product / service. The set goals should be in sync with brand's core capabilities and expertise. For eg: if a business is into selling shoes, they should not set a goal to repair maximum shoes in their area.

Choose the right medium
By now everyone knows, social media is for free. Even paid campaigns can be conducted at a relatively low cost as compared to traditional mediums. It is in this scenario, that we often see small businesses jumping the bandwagon and creating profiles on all the available platforms. Creating social profile does not hamper brand image, but aggressively promoting a brand on wrong platforms can lead to brand losing its potential customers. Here it is advisable for SME's to first identify the right platform through which they can maximize their business. For eg: If a shoe selling brand tries to aggressively sell on LinkedIn, they will not get a plausible response as compared to promotions on Facebook / Instagram.

Promote your core product / services
Since each and every business is riding in the social media wave, it is important for a them to promote their core product / services. Nowadays, we see a lot of businesses promoting their services as well as promoting peripheral products / services, which revolves around their core product / services. Majority of the times, this SME's does not have capabilities to fulfill a requirement, which can lead to a bad word of mouth for their business on social media platforms. Let us go back to our example; If a shoe seller is trying to aggressively promote socks instead of shoes, it is not going to benefit the business in the long run.

Create quality content
Now that we have covered the topics of identifying the target audience, setting achievable goals, choosing the right medium and promoting the right product / services let us now take a look at the type of content a business should promote on their social pages. A business should always focus on creating good quality content rather than not-good quantity content. Even if the business updates their page once in a day as long as it is relevant to their business, advocates about its core products send across a clear message it is considered as a good quality content. Antagonistically, if a business posts multiple updates which are not even relevant to the business's products and services leads to users considering the business as fake / spam. Also, new businesses should try and refrain from promoting other businesses on their social platforms initially.

Create a content calendar
Making a small business successful on social platforms is no small task. It takes a lot of efforts for the businesses to keep up their conversion ratio. One such effort is to create a content calendar. Small businesses must expect important events and create a content calendar accordingly. Ideally, a content calendar must be planned a month in advance but an even weekly content calendar is highly recommended. This helps businesses to avoid any last minute hassles, strategize much more effectively and it also helps in creating curiosity amongst its loyal fans / customers.

Test and re-test
Social media is highly unpredictable. The content a business posts today, may not work for tomorrow. Here, small businesses must always test their content before publishing it on their pages. Testing content also applies to the platform a small business changes to promote. Small business owners must always don the consumer's hat before posting about any product feature, updates, schemes or offers. A consumer's perspective is the key when testing the content that has to be uploaded.

Look for inspiration
Small businesses must always look for inspiration from a competitor who is successful in the same category. Copy pasting competitors idea or content is not the answer. Small businesses must look for the kind of content their competitors are putting up and derive their own strategies subsequently. Inspiring content / stories always make a business to strive to create their own content that is appreciated by one and all. It helps in increasing brand consideration, brand visibility thereby increasing conversions for the business.

Calculate ROI
Even a small promotional budget is not justifiable if there is no mechanism to calculate its return on investment. It is more important in case of small businesses. It is very important for a small business to keep a tab on the budgets allocated to any promotions and the consequent ROI related to it. If a certain promotion is not doing well or the business is not getting desired results, the brand custodian can always look for other platforms to generate quality conversions.

Analyze and Re-strategize
There can be umpteen instances where a particular campaign / promotion might not work for a business. That does not mean that the promotion is wrong or the product / service is not good. Doing an analysis of the campaign is as important as setting the objective. This helps the business to formulate their upcoming strategies in more effective ways. At the end of every campaign, brands must note down the learning's from that campaign and identify if the content / idea was appreciated by their fans or not. This helps businesses to skip the non-performing updates from future communications.

Final Thoughts
Social media for small businesses is definitely beneficial and fruitful. If followed correctly, small businesses can benefit tremendously from the power of social media promotions.

It takes special effort to evade social media these days. Initially seen as an interesting past time, this has now evolved to meet multiple professional and personal needs as well. As social media is becoming so indispensable to different aspects of lives, it correspondingly demands more and more of our time and energy. Keeping this in mind, it may help for us to be more aware of how helpful our social media usage is in terms of time and energy.

Some questions that may be helpful when evaluating how you use this medium are:

• What prompts me to use social media in different situations? (For instance, when looking for specific information, more out of habit, boredom, or to intentionally keep in touch with friends or family).
• When do I most use it the most? (It may help to think over situations when you are most tempted to access these sites/apps. For example, during meals, when travelling, during breaks at work, etc.)
• How do I feel after using it? This question is helpful for you to evaluate whether the time you spend on social media is a positive influence on you or not (For instance – relaxed, mentally stimulated, guilty for having wasted too much time).
• Are there particular sites/pages that leave me more motivated than others? What about these sites/pages leaves me feeling this way?

After reflecting on these points, you may have some clarity on what prompts you to use this media type, when this happens the most, and how helpful it is to you.

A few suggestions that may help you build on this learning are:

• Identify the apps/websites that meet your needs (for information, entertainment, etc.) and limit your usage of social media to these, as opposed to registering on multiple sites/apps and being overwhelmed or easily distracted by notifications from them all.
• Use your knowledge of how a particular app or page on an app influences you to plan when you use a particular type of social media. For instance, if you have the tendency to lose track of time on Facebook, try and use the site when you have large amounts of free time, such as a half an hour lunch break and not during a five-minute work break.
• You could also access pages of apps or profiles that inspire or motivate you during smaller intervals when you need a break and may be feeling tired or overworked.
• For the apps or sites that you have identified are more to break boredom, or tend to negatively influence you, try and schedule in other activities that you could do in that time instead. For instance, going for a quick walk around your office or neighbourhood when bored instead of checking social media.

These are a few suggestions on how you can become more aware of how your usage of social media influences you.

I remember first discovering Twitter; I was hooked. I would bring my laptop everywhere and would constantly be checking for new tweets. There were some early influencers using the channel strategically to promote their brands, but most of us were just out there engaging. Wow, has it ever changed! I quickly learned that I needed to set deadlines for myself, even turning on a timer, to manage how long I was spending on each channel. Otherwise, 10 minutes became an hour, and nothing was getting done!

As social media became more popular, and the number of users across the channels kept increasing, marketers quickly looked for ways to leverage it to further brand engagement. Social Media has gone from a past-time to full-time employment.

The big misconception is that small businesses have an “easy” way to expand their reach, and increase the size of their prospect pool, just by engaging and interacting.

But its not easy, its strategic.

Unless they have a dedicated team member managing their social media, small business owners go through cycles of involvement. They read a blog, or take a class, highlighting the advantages of social media for business, they jump back in, excited with a new direction, and quickly realize the work involved to keep up the momentum. The excitement dwindles, engagement drops, and its back to the status quo. If there is one thing we’ve learned about social media, its that consistent content rich engagement brings the greatest success.

At the risk of sounding overly simplistic, it comes down to an understanding of:

Who – Who is your target market.

What – What should you be posting.

Where – Which social media channels should you be posting to.

When – When your target market is online including when your posts most likely to be seen. This means you can post less but at more targeted times when your messages are most likely to be seen.

How – video, text, photos – a mixture of the three. Are your posts scheduled or spontaneous, or both!

From here you can develop an easy to follow formula that works with the time you have available. Your messaging will be well received both in format, timing, and frequency; maximizing the effectiveness of your messaging with the time that you have available to manage it. Tie this strategy into a lead magnet to capture email addresses, and you’re not just building your social media following, but your email list as well.

Curious to learn more? Jump on over to our website and check out our Social Media Jumpstart package. It’s a quick and easy way, with no commitment, to get you back on track to social media success.

The universe of digital marketing is wide and varied, but the one factor that is dominating it is social media. Through online platforms, companies can reach a global pool of customers that are in billions. Any corporation that is not utilising this source is not only skipping on a fantastic growth window but a cash cow of profitability.

Be it mere PPC services or sharing content on social media, when a company utilises any platform, they spread awareness of their service or product. Furthermore, they indicate to search engines that the brand is reliable, valid and consistent. Let’s take a look at how else social media affects an establishment, positively.

• Get the customer engaged.

Marketing is about winning the attention of a person and then conveying your message. Social media is the easiest and ideal way of interacting with customers. It is the one path that allows for two-way communication at lightning speed. Catering to the wishes or interest of the patron is fast paced with online platforms. When more consumers are engaging with your brand, there is a bigger probability of conversion.

• Get more customers aware.

Facebook, Twitter or Instagram are not just avenues to converse with current customers. They are pathways to reaching an added audience in real time. Unlike most other marketing stratagems, social media is a hassle-free way to enhance the visibility of a brand. Just a few hours every seven days has shown, in more than 90% of companies, a greater awareness of product or service in customers.

The gist is to create all social media profiles, use them regularly and begin networking to generate a wide audience

• Make customers more loyal.

Without a shadow of a doubt, the one benefit social media has for customers is the ease with which they can find brands. The convenience of connecting heightens user experience and benefits the company. How? A patron becomes loyal to a brand when they receive satisfaction. When a customer is able to communicate with the corporation within minutes of facing an issue or wanting to know more about a product through social presence, it ups satisfaction. This, in turn, leads to brand loyalty.

• Gain understanding of the marketplace.

The reason social media is considered the MVP of digital marketing is not that it gives brands the freedom to introduce their products to a broader audience but because it offers a comprehension of the marketplace. When a company is able to talk with their patrons through online avenues directly, they get to know precisely what is needed.

Over and above, a brand can observe the online activities of consumer and get to know their opinions and interests. This would not be possible without pages and handles on social media. Think of social media as a research tool which can be employed to know the demographics when the brand following becomes large.

• Be more economical.

Advertising, in the traditional sense, is not an inexpensive strategy. But promoting through social media marketing is hugely cost-effective.

1. Creating an account on any platform is free.
2. Developing a brand through your own handle costs zilch.
3. Even paid advertising is dirt cheap on social media.

To top the cake with a cherry, a company can invest the smallest amount and get a high rate of return. Significantly raising conversion rates is not hard with social media adverts, you need a little capital and the right time.

• Gain a brand voice.

Through an online platform, a brand can create a voice that speaks directly to patrons and generates a healthy brand image. When a customer receives a tailored reply to their query on social, instead of a cookie cutter reply, they appreciate it more. It shows that the company values the consumer enough to take the effort to write a personal response. A brand voice, therefore, allows for effective communication, networking and healthier satisfaction in clients.

• Become an authority.

Every time a small or big business posts an original content on social media or each time, they resolve a question posed by a customer, they establish authority. As more and more original posts go up and resolutions occur, in the eyes of the patron, the brand becomes an expert on the subject or topic. Just like satisfaction and loyalty affect the bottom line of an organisation, authority touches it too. Why? Because it leaves an optimistic picture in the mind of the consumer. It makes them more probable of buying a product and talking about it to other potential customers.

A Succinct Layout

No marketing guru or entrepreneur can deny that media is a magic wand. It creates miracles for budding and established businesses. When you post consistently, the benefits the trade accrues are:

1. better SEO
2. increased traffic
3. improved brand loyalty
4. healthier customer satisfaction

Remember, chances are the competing businesses is already exploiting social marketing to reach probable patrons. Don’t miss out on the opportunity.