Give The People What They Want

Is your customer base excited about your product or service (image courtesy of activ8inc.com)?

Everyone has something to say these days. Millions of people blog and actively participate on social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram every day. From my personal experience, not all blogs and posts are created equal. My time is too precious to waste on meaningless information that fails to engage me. Therefore, I track a limited number of people and brands. 

Don't bore your audience (image courtesy of kaldeem.wordpress.com)!

How do you engage your audience? Does your content fill a void in the industry or simply serve as an advertisement for your latest project? Recently, I was forced to unfollow a music producer because he was tweeting at least 50 times per day the same exact message, “Beats 4 Sale @...” He also posted this message on Facebook. It drove me crazy after a while!

Why not give the people what they want? The producer could engage others by requesting feedback on his latest track or by creating a contest offering a discounted/free beat to the winner. I don’t know about you, but I love free stuff! I also love when people solicit my opinion. It makes me feel like my voice matters, it gives me a reason to connect with them and increases the chances of me purchasing and/or recommending their products or services.

Take the necessary steps to ensure you meet the needs of your customer base. Avoid the annoying sells pitch and find out what people really want. Ask thought-provoking questions, respond to inquires and become the industry expert. Your audience needs to know that they can count on you for relevant, engaging content. This will not only boost your number of subscribers, fans and followers, it may also increase your bottom line. Please take my advice and give the people what they want. You will wish you done this a lot sooner.

Take my advice (image courtesy of quinlanco.com)!

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What's Your Social Media Strategy for 2013?

Do something better this year!
 (image courtesy of something-to-think-about.com)

It’s that time of year again! You know, when you plan to do things better next year.

What’s your social media strategy for 2013? Why use social media for marketing? Which social media platforms work best for you? How will you engage your audience? Where will you start? When will you start?

These are questions that must be addressed if you plan to create a successful social media marketing plan for the upcoming year.

The American MarketingAssociation (AMA) offers several events throughout the year that helps businesses and individuals improve their marketing efforts and learn about new developments in various forms of marketing, including social media. Most of the events are open to the public. Some of them are rather expensive. However, I found a complimentary event scheduled for December 6, 2012. The VirtualXchange: Social Media 2013: New Strategies for Driving Traffic, Engagements and Conversions event will help guide the development of your social media strategy.You will learn how to create a social media buzz and convert your traffic to sales.

Join the AMA now! (image courtesy of AMA)

This is a great place to start no matter what niche you occupy. There is always something new and improved in social media marketing. The AMA is a reputable association that strives to keep, “members relevant with knowledge, training and tools to enhance lifelong learning and obtain valuable information and connections.” Although you can attend AMA events and purchase material without membership, I highly recommend you become a member. The  membership rates are surprisingly reasonable considering the amount of information you receive each year. You also gain access to the AMA’s online community with thousands of professionals to network with.

Do not attempt to recycle this year’s social media marketing strategy for 2013. As I stated earlier, there is always something new and improved in this industry. You must be aware of the latest developments in social media marketing in order to succeed. The American Marketing Association can guide you in the right direction. Click here to join.

Thanks for reading!