How to use social marketing to promote your business

There are many different ways that you can promote your business by using social marketing. It is one of the latest and most popular ways to market your business. You must be sure that your products, services and market will lend themselves to this form of marketing, because it does take a little time to do and you want to attract the right market.

1. Myspace: Myspace has become increasingly popular, and is now one of the most trafficked sites on the Internet. There are many tools you can use here. There is a classified advertisement center, where you can place ads. But the biggest way to advertise your business is not to advertise as such but to talk to contacts and mention products and services that can be useful to them on Myspace itself. This is a fun way to market and works well if you are not looking for a very tight niche market. You can specialise a little but this form of social marketing is better for a more general market.

2. Forums: Forums are a good form of social marketing, and some marketers use these a lot. Again do not advertise on these forums, because you will be pretty unpopular and may even get banned by the moderator. Instead participate by asking questions and giving good advice. Always leave your little sig file with your post; this is acceptable and even expected. When people get to know you and trust your advice they will visit your website and may even buy something in time. Always choose a forum that is targeted to your market.

3. Discussion boards: Discussion boards are similar to forums but there is a little more debate. The rules are the same and you can use the same techniques to promote your business. Yahoo and Google lists can also be used.

4. Network sites, such as Ryze can be useful. You can join networks that are related to your market. Here you can, not only post and discuss topics but can also post your articles. These are good places to prove yourself an expert in your field. Again you cannot advertise but can leave your sig file with website URL. As in the forums and discussion boards, people can visit your site. In addition there is a private message board that others can contact you on. Many times potential customers will write to you about your product or service.

5. Web 2.0 tools: This is a suite of social marketing tools. It includes video sites, where you can advertise your products and services through videos. This again will work with the right products and services and can be very effective. Some are useful to students others can be adapted for marketing. Myspace and the video sites are the most useful sites for marketing in this set of tools.

6. Seminars: Seminars have been used for many years to promote businesses. Again it is not for every market and they take quite a bit of work to organize and promote. If you are already a well-known figure it is much easier to promote and use. Be sure you have good speakers and target your market. You will need to give people their money's worth, and more, to make this fly. Plan a series of seminars. If the first one is successful then you can travel around the country and many people will gladly pay to go to all of them. Once you get a reputation of being a good speaker and having good speakers at your seminars then you will find this a wonderful marketing tool.

7. Blogging: Blogging is a powerful social tool when used correctly. You need to be aware of a few tips before you try this fun form of marketing. Make your blogs concise and enjoyable. Try to blog every 1-2 days to keep your readers busy and build up traffic. Make blog networks to really build up targeted traffic.

Be sure that you choose subjects and events that your special market will enjoy, and write them so that your readers will be compelled to read all your blogs. You can include links to bigger more detailed articles and also to new products. Properly done blogs can be very profitable and are one of the best social marketing tools you can use.

Social marketing is fun to do. It does take a little time but if you want you can hire other people to write your blogs and articles for you. You can make many friends and build up good business relations with social marketing. It is a wonderful way to practice customer relationship marketing and is well worth looking into, as an alternative and cost effective way of marketing.


Sean McPheat is a leading authority marketing consultant and helps businesses across the UK, Europe, US and the Middle East. Sean's marketing services include direct mail, internet marketing, sales copy, sales training, telemarketing, PR and strategic alliance marketing.