During the recent webinar, “How to Make Money With the Right Social Media Tools,” Engauge Communications’ Director of Social Media Chad Israel provided insight on how to use social media and networking tools for cost-effective advertising and reaching new customers. Israel explained that social-media outlets, such as MySpace, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, are extremely useful for reaching customers due to the speed of communication.
“In its purest form, social media is word-of-mouth marketing,” said Israel. “What was once you telling a friend that something is good, now, via social media, results in hundreds of friends receiving the exact same message at the same time.”
With current economic conditions and the credit crunch, obtaining new customers and customer outreach are more important than ever. Traditional advertising and marketing outlets, which can be costly and have a less-than-desired return on investment, are not as effective as they once were.
Israel also says that reaching younger buyers through traditional marketing and advertising methods, such as TV, radio and newspaper, is difficult because their interests are varied and can change rapidly.
To reach new customers, Isreal suggests understanding the current climate of the marketplace and redefining your strategies and tactics of how to reach new consumers and understand the limitations of traditional outlets.
“Take a step back, and don’t commit to long-term, costly advertising initiatives,” he explained.
Israel provided these guidelines for getting started with social-media outlets.
To get started today, Israel says to start creating what he refers to as your company’s social-media footprint by creating online content and becoming active with online communities. He suggests developing a page on MySpace and inviting people in your area to your online community, creating a Facebook Fan Page for your business, establishing a YouTube channel to build a video log of current content and registering your company with the Google Local Business Center to help you index and search ratings in your demographic area.
To hear all of Israel’s tips, including using Twitter to broadcast messages through a large network and examples of what types of Internet ads to buy, download the complete presentation at www.sema.org/webinar.