By: Madelynn Graham, Account Coordinator

Everyone is talking, texting, tweeting about social media.  The internet is saturated with a variety of social networks and many business owners feel lost amongst the myriad of outlets.  The major issue faced is no longer “Do I need a Facebook FanPage for my business?”  but rather “What do I do with it?” and “How can I drive traffic to it?”

Social media is unavoidable at this junction.  If companies and businesses don’t make their own profiles, somebody else will and this can cause brand confusion.

Rather than selecting which social media outlet to use for growth, businesses have to make accounts on all the major networks and harness the attention of the internet audience.  In the digital marketing world, we are all familiar with the giants Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn as well as the up and comers like the quickly-growing Pinterest.  The goal is not to rely on one social media network but instead to integrate and adapt your message into all of the outlets.

Social media is a great tool that can help establish your business’s brand recognition, own that brand’s social presence, and take your message directly to the consumer.  Driving traffic to the pages requires more effort than just simply creating the account.  Consumers will pay attention if you:

  • Engage your audience by addressing both negative and positive feedback;
  • Offer specials or discounts/coupons;
  • Run contests related to your business;
  • And connect with your clientele in a personal way that lets them know their comments are not falling flat in the abyss of the internet.

There are many programs online that will help you integrate your social media in one place and also track reach and compile insight reports to let business owners know what is effective and what is not.  Some of these services include “CrowdBooster“, “Prosodic“, “Shoutlet“, and our personal favorite “Hootsuite.”  These programs allow you to tailor your social media to fit your audience, track which demographics are paying attention to which social media profiles and build a following of current and prospective customers.  Social media integration allows advertising and promotion to be evenly distributed amongst the different networks in a way that garners results.

The future of social media is not which network will grow the fastest, but how effectively companies can keep up with the developments.