NOT Using Viral Marketing Could Kill Your Business!
It has been widely accepted that viral marketing must be used if you want your business to succeed. However, NOT using viral marketing could kill your business. The problem is, how does one know when not to use it? Sure, we could tell you that all the experts say it's a bad thing and then leave it at that. But instead, we have a short list of ways in which not using viral marketing could actually be the best choice for your company:
People who are new to social media may never grow their following and their site will never go live because they're just too cheap to spend on advertising or do any work other than creating catchy headlines.
Not enough content means they'll have trouble generating interest. They'll have to create better content, or just not use social media all.
Proof that social media is actually a good way to market your business.
Even if you don't get viral, you can still end up with a lot of sales because social media gives people the opportunity to see your products and get interested enough in them to go to your site and purchase. Sometimes, you can even offer special coupons only available through facebook or twitter that people will use once they're already at your site.
This one should be obvious by now. The more you post, the more you'll have something people want to pass along. Not to mention, as long as you're constantly working and creating content, people will be looking to you for that next piece of news.
The headway you make will mean better and more popular products in the future. If people see your social media efforts are making a difference, they'll feel encouraged to follow your progress.
This one is so obvious we may as well not even mention it. Even if you never get any sales from viral marketing, those small purchases you do manage to get will be worth far more than any kind of advertising spend.
If you're not even going to try social media, what is it that makes you think your business will succeed? And if it doesn't, what will you say when people ask why?
Instead of reinventing the wheel and checking off the same old list of things you know bring success (social media included), take a different approach this time. Instead of trying to get a million hits on your website, go to craigslist and start offering freebies and coupons. Instead of having a big following, look for small groups that are like-minded, share their interests and start talking with them. Post all your content on every blog you can find in hopes of getting as many links as possible.
Instead of posting the same thing on every blog, give each one something different. It's more interesting that way, and will play better with the readers. If you don't have any content to give them, make some up!
Yeah, it might look like a giant mess at first. But once you get it all written in a pretty way and start connecting all your posts together, you'll notice that it's actually coming together very nicely.
Don't let yourself be trapped into the same old software that's not working for you. You can do so many more things with social media now, and it's SO much more fun to use than a bunch of clunky programs from the past!
If you're not sure what kind of social media to start with, or how to get started without spending money, check out our list of Top 10 Free Social Media Tools. We've put together a list of the best free tools available so you can get some bang for your buck.
You'll feel like a better businessperson and you'll have more fun than you've had in years.
About the Author:
Zach Sims is the owner of Scripted Digital, and his main goal is to help people understand the importance of social media marketing and how it's not as complicated as it may seem to be. Read more at: http://scripteddigital.com/not-using-viral-marketing-could-kill-your-business/ [ARTICLE END]
SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING FOR CHILDREN The double edge sword of social media for kids So this weekend I had a little downtime at home and was considering what I could use it for. My wife is a stay at home mom and I like to spend time with my children and do some blogging from time to time. I was thinking about trying to use my DSLR camera and maybe get some shots for a blog post but the only problem was that my kids are like, 4 and 6 years old (for context, both kids have autism), so it gets really hard for me to do photography stuff with them around. So what I ended up doing is using twitter which is a lot easier for me because my kids aren't there, at least not all the time. So I started thinking about using social media for kids because I know a lot of people use their blogs as a way to connect with friends, families and even children. I was trying to come up with some ideas for this blog post but then the clouds parted and the answer came in the form of my son. So here's my first question for you all: Are you wondering how to manage your kids' social media presence? It has been often said that only 3% of American children are on some sort of social media network. A good portion of these children are parents who want their families to be connected even if they are not themselves personally active on these networks. The reason that I say children are engaged on social media is because my son has been using it for the past several weeks. He has his own twitter account and uses it to connect with his friends at school, play with other kids he meets online, share pictures and videos (all of which are protected so no one can post porn on his account). Just last week he and I were texting back and forth about how to do a double sided poster that looked pretty good. As I mentioned earlier, he is not active on these networks personally but chooses to use them because he knows that this is how people share information about each other. You can read more about how children use social media by going to the Wall Street Journal article that I have posted below. I'd love to hear from you about your thoughts on this subject, for example do you have a child who uses social media? Do you think that social media has had a negative impact on youth? Wall Street Journal (March 3, 2012) – More than a third of Americans have a child or teenager in their household who is active on Facebook, Twitter or some other kind of social network. Another 15% of Americans with kids at home say their children are too young to be using these services. That totals 48% of American households with children—or an estimated 106 million U.S.
Conclusion: Social media for kids is not as widespread as it is for adults.
What was more intriguing is one of the reasons why people do not let their children use social media like MySpace and Facebook . This reason was "don't want my child potentially exposed to a lot of adult content." Almost half of all parents feel that these are too risky, but most children are able to access these sites because they know their friends password or have an account of their own. I believe that this means that there will be a huge influx in children on social media in the coming years.