Social media is the new frontier in marketing your business on the Internet. Every business should be developing strategies and putting plans in place to make use of social media in their marketing mix. Why is social media important? It is important because your customers are using it.

So what is social media and why is it important to business marketing? Social media includes blogs, social networking, professional networking, photo sharing, video sharing and collaboration sites such as wikis. It includes Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter and much more. Social media implies a two way interaction rather than one way monologues. It involves building relationships and conversations with your readers.

Why should businesses use social media?

1. Your customers are there: Many millions of people read blogs, participate in networking and listen to podcasts every day. This includes people from B2B (business-to-business) and B2C (business-to-consumer) sectors.
2. Your competition isn’t there: Most small and medium sized businesses are not using social media yet. This gives you a chance to get a jump on your competition. Many large organizations are beginning to market thru social media.
3. Cost effective: Most social media are free to use. Reach your targeted audience without having to lay down a single cent. The real investment is the time it takes to design your marketing message.
4. Website traffic: Marketing with social media can bring traffic and links to any website. Social media is not only popular with readers, but search engines give high importance to links from social media sites.
5. Extend your reach: Marketing thru social media introduces your company to new prospects. Traditional media and website marketing reaches a different audience than social media.

There are thousands of social media sites and options available to your company. What is exciting is that it is still very new and this gives your company the opportunity to be a leader in your market.

Relationship marketing builds good long term customer relationships thru regular communication. This means working to build customer relationships over a longer term. People prefer to do business with people that they know and like. You can expand your relationship marketing using online methods thru blogs, websites, email and social media. It’s a matter of building trust.

Blog Marketing: Blog marketing allows you to regularly reach readers on a conversational level. Each day you can reach them with problem solving ideas, business advice, and insights on how you can help them. They can answer back with comments. You can engage them in a blogging conversation. Blogging allows you to develop strong bonds with your existing and future customers.

Relationship Website: Design your website to be relationship oriented. This means inviting visitors in and creating a warm friendly user experience. Show your hospitality and offer guests free “goodies” in the form of free information, eBooks or tools.

A well developed FAQ area makes it easy for people to locate info and get answers to their questions. Encourage two way dialogue where they can easily call, message or email for immediate answers.
Make your website interactive. Create a two way flow of information with live support. Allow visitors to describe their unique needs and receive specialized answers their needs.

Email Communication: Use email to stay in touch with visitors that give you permission to send emails. Offer to send visitors valuable information or resources. This is about creating a positive experience, not spamming. Always offer an easy way for them to opt out from future emails so they have control.

Social Media: Using websites such as LinkedIn and Facebook, you can interact and network with your prospective customers. There are hundreds if not thousands of social media websites where folks from different market niches gather and converse.

The key to using the web for relationship marketing is to distinguish yourself from the masses. You must be willing to do what others are not willing to do. You need to dare to be different.

BLIF marketing is an acronym for Blogging, LinkedIn, and Facebook marketing. BLIF marketing is the basis for small businesses to market themselves on a zero dollars per day marketing budget. It is now possible to market your business without spending any money.

BLIF marketing allows business to focus on the three high yield strategies from social media. Each of these can be done for free and the only investment required is time to learn and use these tools.

BLIF Marketing = Blogging + LinkedIn + Facebook Marketing

1. Blogging is the branding element. Build up a readership, establish yourself as the authority in your niche and reach new prospects.
2. LinkedIn is the professional networking element where you establish a broad network of business relationships.
3. Facebook is the social networking piece and works at a more personal interaction level. Facebook is about building relationships.

BLIF marketing is a free marketing strategy that is designed for small businesses and hobby businesses where there is no marketing budget available. Even without marketing dollars, it is possible to build and grow a thriving business. Businesses can do this without spending one dollar on marketing.

Are there other areas of social media that can be used? Of course! But the premise of BLIF marketing is to establish a core strategies that can become the social media marketing foundation.

There is a blog set-up that only focuses on BLIF marketing and how businesses can use it. The one over riding principle is that all marketing must be able to be implemented without spending even one dollar.

Make Social Networks Part of Your Web Strategy. Social networks need to be part of your Internet marketing for your business. They are the new frontier that blogging was just a few years ago. Traffic and personal connections from LinkedIn, Facebook and MySpace are just too big to ignore.

There are many dozens of social networks, many with specialties or niches. For instance Black Planet focuses on the African American community. 43things.com is about goal setting while wayn.com is about travel. Cardomain.com is the networking site for car enthusiasts.

The best and most effective way to use social networks is to choose the one that most closely matches your market. Find the one that most closely fits your ideal “target demographic” and then spend time and really network and become part of the group.

7 Ways to effectively utilize a social network.

1. Choose a network that includes your targeted demographic. Remember that smaller networks tend to be easier and faster to connect with.
2. Decide on what you want to accomplish and what people (industries, level in the organization) that you want to reach.
3. Don’t just sign-up and visit occasionally. Interact and spend time networking with the members and become a part of the group.
4. Don’t go in looking for customers to convert into a quick sale. Go in with the idea that you want to build relationships. You can create many unexpected alliances that can cause your business to benefit in many unexpected ways.
5. Use the phone to contact “friends” you create to increase the interactions and better build business relationships.
6. Constantly adjust your approach and try new things to get new and better results.
7. Real benefits come from networking over a long period. Don’t expect instant results and the results you get will be proportional to the effort you put in.

The challenge that local small businesses face is how to bring targeted local traffic to their website. Here are seven cost effective ways for a local restaurant or dry cleaner to use to reach local prospects.

1. Organic SEO: Optimize your website with your primary keywords mixed in with city, neighborhood, community and local names. Include phone numbers with area codes. These are all ways that people search for local businesses.
2. Google Local Search: These listings appear along with a map at the top of Google’s search results when people search for local businesses or services. You can add your business listing for free by going to the Google Local Business Center.
3. Facebook: Create a Facebook page for your small business. Encourage customers to join your Facebook presence by offering a free glass of wine or free service. You can then reach them offer specials to your fans. Encourage customers to leave reviews on your Facebook page. Forbes did a nice story on a local restaurant using Facebook.
4. Online Radio Ads: Place online radio ads with a service like TargetSpot. You can geo-target your ad down to the zip code and they advertise that you can start with as little as $50.
5. CitySearch: Citysearch is a local guide with the information on local businesses. These range from restaurants and spas, to hotels and retail. Local guides like CitySearch allow you to advertise with a web ad for a reasonable monthly fee.
6. Blog: Create a blog that deals with local services, issues, history or events. The key here is to create local content that is interesting to your targeted customer and that uses local town and community names to draw in local visitors.
7. Google Adwords: Set-up two campaigns. One that uses general keyword phrases that are manually geo-targeted. The second uses the same keywords with city and/or state added to the beginning or end. Use the state or city terms prominently in the ad to get a higher click thru rate.

It is now possible to market your business without spending any money. Marketing using social media such as LinkedIn, and Facebook allows entrepreneurs to spread the word about what they do and reach new customers. This is the new marketing frontier that businesses are tapping into.

Neal Evan Caminsky of Red Dream Studios does just that. Red Dream Studios is a Montreal based web design and video production company. Although started in 2001 as a part time venture, Neal quit his day job and took his hobby full time in May 2007.

Red Dream Studios has a broad offering including web design, corporate identity packages, Flash, multimedia production and photography at extremely competitive prices. His targeted clients are small business owners and people just starting up businesses.

To reach new customers, Neal Caminsky turned to social media. He chose LinkedIn, Facebook and Blogger.com as his marketing tools. All are free services and just require time, energy and commitment.

1. LinkedIn: LinkedIn is known for providing networking opportunities with executives and professionals from all industries. Neal also connected with past colleagues, some of whom had moved onto key positions at major companies. Neal crated a complete LinkedIn profile. LinkedIn Answers allows Neal to interact in all sorts of discussions on a wide range of topics. These connections have turned into work from high profile companies such as Bell Canada.
2. Facebook: Facebook is one of the most powerful social networking services available and is very popular with small business owners. On Facebook, Neal Caminsky set-up a facebook profile for himself and then set up a Facebook group for his company. Facebook allows publishing of photos and video examples of his work. Facebook networking has brought in work from companies like SoftImage Co. and McGill University.
3. Blogger.com: The third major part of the Red Dream Studios marketing strategy is blog marketing. A blogger.com blog was created and then integrated into their website. You can integrate the blog from Blogger, by having it published to an FTP folder on your website.

There you have it, a marketing campaign that produces results at no cost… only time. Marketing on social media leads to connections and connections lead to business. As a side note, I met Neal on LinkedIn Answers and I was impressed enough to create this article about his innovative marketing methods.

It was the best of campaigns and it was the worst of campaigns… It was Target vs. Walmart

Back in the summer of 2007, two mighty retailing giants, Target and Wal-Mart began waging marketing campaigns on Facebook. What were the results? Well the campaigns are still going on, but by March 2008 Wal-Mart has gathered 116 fans and Target has 20,321 fans. Why the huge difference? What went right for Target and wrong for Wal-Mart?

Wal-Mart
Wal-Mart has not had acceptance on Facebook, partialy because the retailer giant is widely known as the practical shopping store with discount pricing. They tried to position themselves as the stylish shopping place with their “Roommate Style Match” campaign in an effort to connect with college students. They presented themselves as the fashion and style store. This was viewed as Wal-Mart straying from their core values and being unauthentic.

Wal-Mart decided to restrict comments and feedback. Comments were restricted to “wall posts” instead of having discussion boards. This was viewed as one-way marketing.

People are also put off by their controversial policies such as their anti-union stance and their impact of stores on local businesses and local wages.

The result was a flood of negative wall posts that quickly spread to many blogs creating a strong controversy.

Target
Target took a different approach than Wal-Mart. They created their “Dorm Survival Guide” to help students who found themselves in a new situation of worry and anxiety of moving off to college. Their approach was not to market products, but to promote social interaction with discussion groups on topics such as recipes, design advice, and topics students were interested in.

The communication was not in typical corporate talk, but in everyday informal student vernacular. Words such as “awesome” were common. Students were encouraged to swap out photos and videos with their own dorm room pictures. The result was an environment that encouraged interaction and discussion.

Target product promotion was low key. Their focus was on offering aid. This created advocates who would tout the Target brand.

So what were the differences? The Wal-Mart page looked more like an interactive ad while Target’s was much more inviting. Target promoted discussions, while Wal-Mart restricted discussions. Wal-Mart came into their campaign surrounded in controversy over their policies. In the end, Target succeeded connecting with college students, while Wal-Mart has failed.

Facebook is the fastest growing social networking website and business owners and marketing managers should consider adding conversational marketing to their toolbox of marketing strategies. Facebook has powerful features that can help grow your business if used correctly.  Follow these tips as you implement marketing on Facebook.

1. Profile: Build an attention getting profile that will make an impact. Think of this as your branding for your business. Include a good photo, contact info, a link to your website, education, work history, personal interests, etc.
2. Networks: Take the time when building your profile to include the city your business is in, your industry, and other networking information. Let potential business partners find you and make yourself more searchable.
3. Friends: Add friends to build your networking. There are tools to find friends that are already on Facebook. Use Facebook tools to meet people with common interests, build a relationship and gather them as friends to build up your base.
4. Groups: Join online groups that are related to what you do. This is an excellent way to make contacts and build from there. If you don’t see a group that is a close enough fit, form your own. An excellent way to brand yourself as the authority.
5. Blog: Create and syndicate your own blog on your personal profile page. Broadcast your blog using RSS and increase your exposure and increase your readership.
6. Comment: Make comments on other people’s profiles. By reaching out, you will start interacting and engaging with new people and contacts. The more comments you leave on these virtual walls, the more exposure you get.
7. Events: List your events and new services by creating an events page. Instead of printing flyers and mailers, use the Facebook Events app. to get the word out. You can invite anyone you want. Guests can leave valuable feedback.
8. Gifts: send virtual gifts to show your appreciation. Send a virtual potted plant or flowers to make that great impression. There are third party applications that allow you to give unique gifts. A great way to build strong relationships.

Facebook is one of the fastest growing social networking sites around and it has many features that help you promote your business on a low budget. Individuals of all ages use the Internet to socialize on networking sites like Facebook. You can market your business and interact with your targeted audience at a relaxed level.

The approach in marketing on Facebook and any other social media site is to keep the sales pitch low key. The goal is to talk with people, engage them in conversation and spend time building a trust relationship. When they are ready to buy, they think of you first

In the past few years Facebook has gone from a college photo-sharing and friend networking site to a major business networking platform. In choosing a networking tool, you need to evaluate if your targeted customer is there.

When comparing MySpace, Facebook and LinkedIn, three of the most popular networking sites, look at the nature of the audience. MySpace tends to be more personal consumers, LinkedIn has a high percentage of professionals, while Facebook tends to more in the middle. There seem to be more small business owners on Facebook

To maximize a Facebook marketing campaign, you need to use a variety of tools and techniques. These include Social Ads, Groups, Events, Fan Pages, Share, and the News Feed. You should use the Stumble Upon and Digg buttons to promote your website or your products and services.

Market Lodge is the new program that allows Facebook members to earn 10% commissions on products they recommend to their friends. Thru Market Lodge, you allow other Facebook users to market your product in their “personal store.”

With new Facebook Apps and add-ons, users can not only send a bunch of flowers, they can send each other a virtual drink, create and host events, advertise their businesses through social ads, and more.

Business networking is important to grow your business. Networking can range from virtual online networking using tools like LinkedIn or Facebook to face-to-face meetings. Which forms work the best? Actually, I find that a mix of real and virtual networking is best.

The age of your targeted customer should be an important determiner of which way is best. Match the preferences of your targeted customer with the networking strategies that you are comfortable with. Let’s look at generational preferences.

1. Baby Boomers, those in their 50’s and 60’s will always prefer face to face meetings. They tend to be less comfortable with computer communication and like to interact verbally and when possible, in person.
2. Generation X, those in their 30’s and 40’s tend to be much more comfortable with technology. They prefer keep it simple and are very likely to be using LinkedIn and other business networking tools.
3. Generation Y, those in their teens and 20’s are the most comfortable in using all forms of technology. They know what they want and they will come find you. They will usually have a good presence on MySpace or Facebook.

Face-to-Face Networking: This can include “Leads Groups” that meets at your local Chamber of Commerce or with organizations like I take The Lead. You can also use networking services like meetup.com to find local group meetings. If you want to connect with senior level leaders, then attending a $300 a plate dinner may be a better investment than attending a dozen networking breakfasts. Many professional associations have terrific opportunities for face-to-face networking.

Virtual Networking: the best networking tools are those that get you in front of your targeted customer. LinkedIn seems to be the most accepted business networking tool. Other popular tools include Facebook, Plaxo, and Fastpitch.