Simple Solutions for Social Media Marketing on a Small Budget

You don’t need to spend a fortune to promote your business through internet marketing. When you first start off as an entrepreneur, it can be difficult to decide how best to spend your available funds. One area that offers the most confusion is marketing.

I’ll walk you through some of the best solutions for social media marketing on a budget.

Create Social Media Business Profiles

The first place to start is with social media marketing. You don’t need to spend a dime to begin promoting yourself or your products on social media. Start by choosing two or three social networking sites to focus on.

One of these sites should be Facebook, as they have the most users. Along with Facebook, you could choose Twitter, Google Plus, Instagram, or LinkedIn. Consider the average demographic of these sites and which platform your target audience is most likely to use.

Join Relevant Social Media Groups

Create a business profile for these sites. At first, you should minimize the promotion of your own products or services. Focus on building relationships with others in your industry. Join relevant groups on each platform. Begin joining conversations and get your name out there.

Facebook Groups are available for almost any industry. If you can’t find a relevant group, then create your own.

Create a Schedule for New Posts

After you grow your follower base, you can start sending out posts and tweets promoting your products or services. Create a schedule for these posts. You should try to post on a daily basis. Though, the majority of your posts should not be related to self-promotion.

Try to strike a balance between self-promotion, helpful posts, and curating posts. Over half of your posts should offer your followers beneficial information. This could be content that you find elsewhere on the web that you believe your followers will enjoy.

Create a Facebook Ad Campaign

Once you have a Facebook business profile, you should consider starting a Facebook advertisement campaign. This is one of the most affordable options for creating an ad campaign. You get to target a large segment of the population.

Over 70 percent of internet users have a Facebook account. This number is continuing to grow. Unless you’re targeting teenagers or the elderly, there’s a good chance your target audience has a Facebook account.

When using a Facebook ad campaign, you can pay for impressions instead of clicks. For a few dollars per day, thousands of people can see the post that you promoted.

Offer a Freebie Item to New Followers

In addition to the tips already provided, you could give your new followers a freebie item. You don’t need to spend any money on this item. Creating a short guide that your followers can download is one example of a free item that costs no upfront money to create.

Choose a topic related to your products or services and create a short guide. Convert your document into a PDF and then create a spot on your website to provide users with the download link. Once a visitor clicks on the link to follow you on Facebook, they’ll receive the download link.

Social media marketing doesn’t have to break your bank. When you’re first starting out, it can be hard to gain recognition. If you’re struggling to sell your products or services, use these tips to boost sales and grow your brand without spending a large sum of money.

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Which Social Media Platforms Should You Use for Online Marketing?

Facebook remains the king of social media platforms. There are nearly 2 billion active users on Facebook. But, it’s not the only social networking site out there.

LinkedIn is still going strong and was recently purchased by Microsoft. Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr, Instagram, Reddit, and Google Plus are also attracting millions.

Which of these social media sites should you focus on for your online marketing campaign? Spreading yourself too thin is a possibility for entrepreneurs. Instead, devote your energies to two or three platforms.

Use the following tips to determine which social media platforms will best help you connect with your target audience.

Facebook

Due to the sheer number of users, Facebook should definitely be a part of your social media marketing (SMM) strategy. As mentioned, they have almost 2 billion active users. Almost everyone seems to have a Facebook account.

It’s estimated that about 77% of all female internet users and 66% of men have a Facebook account. Though, the numbers shift depending on your target age group. About 87% of people 18 – 29 have a Facebook account. The numbers drop to 73% for those 30 – 49 years old.

You can target just about any demographic through Facebook, as a part of your SMM campaign. Though, you should still include one or two additional sites in your strategy.

Twitter

Twitter has reached 313 million monthly active users, which makes it the third most popular social networking site after Facebook and YouTube. For the 18 – 29 age group, about 37% of the population has a Twitter account. Twitter is well-rounded. A nearly even number of users are men and women.

As with Facebook, Twitter covers a wide range of users. Though, younger generations are more likely to have a Twitter account. Due to the ease of sending out tweets, it remains a popular option for entrepreneurs that want to quickly build a social media presence.

Twitter is very beneficial for entrepreneurs that are just starting out or those that want to specifically target a younger audience.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn  now has over 500 million active monthly users. Nearly half of people with a college degree have a LinkedIn account. LinkedIn is well suited for B2B marketing, as well as for marketing professional services or products.

LinkedIn users tend to skew into the higher income brackets and are more likely to have some level of higher education.

Pinterest

Pinterest is another option, depending on your target audience. They have over 276 million users. 42% of women have a Pinterest account, while just 13% of men use this site. Pinterest remains heavily geared towards women.

If your products or services are targeted directly at women, then Pinterest may be a beneficial site to include in your SMM strategy.

Which Sites Should You Choose?

You should think about your target audience. Who do you want to reach? You won’t get anywhere by targeting the entire population. Focus your efforts on specific segments of the population.

As your brand grows, you can increase your presence and target larger groups. But, you will still use individual campaigns to target these groups.

Two to three sites, including Facebook, are a good starting point for most entrepreneurs. If you feel that you can handle the demands of keeping up with more than that, then go ahead. Just know that an SMM campaign should remain consistent. Create a schedule and stick to it.

If you’re finding it hard to market your products or services through social media, rethink your strategy. Use these suggestions to choose the right social media sites. For additional online marketing techniques, such as a complete lead generation system, click here to learn about my done-for-you system.

How to Choose the Right Social Media Platform

Using social media to connect with customers, increase your online exposure, and boost your SEO are all great reasons to include social media in your internet marketing strategies. But, having too many social media profiles can dilute your brand and make it difficult to keep up with your marketing efforts.

While major corporations can get away with paying a marketing team to stay up to date with every social media platform available, this may not be an option for your business. Instead of spreading yourself too thin, you should focus on two, three max, social media platforms.

So, how do you choose the platform that’s right for your business? By evaluating your target audience and the pros and cons of each major social media platform. Here are a few useful tips to help you make the right decision.

Facebook Remains at the Top

As mentioned, at most, you should have a presence on three different social media platforms. You’ll need to consider the benefits of each platform, except for one. Facebook remains the largest social media platform. Right off the bat, you should include Facebook in your social media strategy.

Facebook has over 1 billion users across the globe. That’s a figure that the other social media platforms can’t come close to beating. For this reason, you’ll need to include Facebook as one of your social media platforms.

Everyone and their grandmother has a Facebook account. Even if you don’t use your Facebook account, you probably have one. You can’t ignore a site that receives over a billion unique visits every month. Though, there are other sites to add to your marketing strategy.

The Top Social Networking Sites

In addition to Facebook, you should choose one or two other platforms to focus your social media marketing efforts on. You’ll need to look at your target audience and the demographics of each to determine which ones to choose. Here are the top social networking sites, other than Facebook:

• Twitter – 310 million visitors per month
• LinkedIn – 255 million
• Pinterest – 250 million
• Google Plus – 120 million
• Tumblr – 110 million
• Instagram – 100 million

As you can see, none of these sites come close to matching the Facebook’s traffic. But, they can still be an effective part of your social media strategy.

Consider Your Core Target Audience

Who do you want to target? What are the demographics of your core target audience? The answer is key to choosing your social media policies. Here’s some valuable insight into the demographics of the top social networking sites. Use this information to decide which platforms you want to focus on.

Pinterest is used by 44% of all female internet users. The majority of these women are between the ages of 18 and 49. Yet, only about 16% of men have a Pinterest account. If your products or services are geared towards women, Pinterest is a good choice.

If you’re targeting the younger crowd, Twitter, Tumblr, and Instagram are all suitable options. Roughly one-third of internet users between the ages of 18 and 29 use these sites. Twitter is more effective for regular updates and links while Tumblr and Instagram are beneficial if the majority of the content that you share is visual in nature.

For those targeting fans of technology, you should include Google Plus in your marketing strategy. It may not receive as much traffic as Twitter. But, Google Plus remains a popular source for those interested in the latest gadgets and technology.

Despite all of the talk about LinkedIn’s declining appeal, it’s still the third most visited social networking site. It remains an effective solution for those focusing on B2B lead generation and actual business networking.

Every entrepreneur and business owner should be using social media to expand their brand and reach more customers. The trick is choosing the right social networking sites for your business. Keep these tips in mind as you develop your social media strategies.

Thanks for reading—make sure that you put these tips to use. If you’d like to gain additional internet marketing tips and strategies, then click on this link to learn about my lead generation system.