Social Media and Marketing Guide

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING GUIDE, GETTING STARTED

New to social media marketing? This beginner’s guide will get your business on the road to online success.

In this guide to social media marketing we look at what the process actually is and why it’s good for your small business. We also highlight some of the platforms available to help you decide which ones would suit your business goals.

What is social media marketing?

Before we start, let’s get to grips with what social media marketing actually is and what it means for your business. We can define social media marketing as the process of increasing the visibility of your firm by using social media channels. Your strategy will change depending on what you want to achieve, but the goals are usually to make people aware of a particular product or service, drive traffic to your website and gain new customers.

Why should you use it?

The internet is where most of your clients are going to be looking for you. If customers 

want to find a tradesperson, designer or any other service nowadays they invariably search online, so it helps if search engines can find your website or profile quickly. If you need to create a website for your company, the Houzz Site Designer tool is free and in less than 15 minutes you’ll have a website.

Another benefit of social media?

It’s a way to gain insight into the needs of your customer base, so that you can offer a good service and retain clients. You can also use it to check out the competition, and to establish yourself as a professional in your field. And if you need another reason to get your business on social media, it’s probably the fastest and most efficient way of reaching out to and connecting with potential new customers, regardless of where they live.

Social media strategist, Jemima Gibbons offers a good tip, “Focus on building your network rather than instant sales. Remember, social media is about building relationships over the long term. You often hear people likening social media to a pub or a party – you wouldn’t just walk in and start shouting about what you want to sell.”

Which platform should you use?

There are so many social media channels around nowadays that the choice of where to direct your marketing energies can be overwhelming. Rather than enthusiastically posting everywhere, it’s best to start small and direct your attention to one or two platforms, before you move on to a new one.

To decide which ones to choose you need to define your objectives, and also work out which channels your target customers are using. For example, if you’re looking to increase general awareness it’s useful to choose one of the larger, more established platforms, or if you want to effectively target homeowners who are planning a renovation project, an industry-specific platform such as Houzz would be more effective.

your customers are looking is to check out the social media profiles of your competitors. See where they’re directing their energies and use the number of followers they have on each platform as a rough guide to which ones are more effective for your niche.

Get to know the platforms

To help you decide where to target your marketing strategy, here’s a brief outline of some social media platforms.

Facebook is one of the original social networking sites and is still going strong today. If you’re looking for a platform with a huge amount of users, 2 billion in fact, you can’t go wrong with Facebook. By posting relevant content that’s interesting and worthy of sharing, you’ll have the opportunity to reach a potentially massive number of people. It also offers an effective way of targeting advertising at customers.

Twitter is different to Facebook in that you can only share posts of 280 characters or less, so it’s great for posting simple messages or linking to other content. You can make one-to-one connections on Twitter easily by joining conversations, retweeting or mentioning other users, so it’s a great place to follow up on leads or even make new ones. It takes time to make an impact on Twitter, however, so you’ll need to invest time and effort. There also isn’t as much opportunity for target advertising.

Instagram is a fast-growing social media platform and, according to some reports, has more brand engagement than other channels, so it’s a good choice for small businesses. This platform is designed for sharing images and short videos.

LinkedIn is a good option for lead generation and for help building up a professional network. It offers the potential for connecting directly with leads, as well as sharing interesting industryfocused content. By joining groups you can share your professional knowledge and establish yourself as an authority in your field. Houzz is the leading platform for home renovation and design, providing people with everything they need to improve their homes from start to finish – online or from a mobile device. From decorating a small room to building a custom home and everything in between, Houzz connects millions of homeowners, home design enthusiasts and home improvement professionals across the country and around the world.

Houzz helps remodelers, designers, builders and other home renovation professionals by applying technology to build their brands, connect with homeowners and move project management to the cloud. Pros can both build their brands and collaborate with real, potential clients via ideabooks.

www.houzz.co.uk

New styles, same great value

Carron Phoenix’s newest range of sinks are designed in a range of styles and colours to suit any style preferences, matching design with functionality. Our latest high powered waste disposal units are the ultimate compliment to any busy working kitchen. Ask your local distributor for details or call us on 0161 436 6280 or visit www.carron.com

Rapid 150 with Pura tap Carronade Elite CE-50