How To Fit Social Media Into Your Marketing Strategy

• Posting
• Tweeting
• Youtubing
• Linking
• Instagraming

…via your laptop, tablet, or mobile device?

Chances are fairly likely that you, me, our neighbors, our kids, and probably even our pets have encountered some form of social media within the last 24 hours. Chances are also fairly likely that as of 5-10 years ago, had we used any of the 5 words above as “things we do” in our free time, we would’ve sounded like we had lost our social media minds.
But all of this goes to show how the likes of Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, LinkedIn, and Instagram have quickly and dramatically impacted our social and relational lives.

This all goes to show how they’ve impacted our business and professional lives as well.

The Rise in Social Media Marketing

The impact of social media marketing is taking place in a variety of businesses and industries.

Take for instance an average B2C company (B2C is a business whose customers are consumers). According to research from the Content Marketing Institute (CMI), B2C companies are expanding their marketing strategy by “using all social media platforms more frequently this year than they did last year.” 

Basically, we’re finding out that while social media use has risen and become more common place within our social lives, it’s also risen (and quickly becoming common place) in our business lives as well.

Additionally, the use of social media marketing isn’t just limited to B2C companies.

For instance, my solo professional business, Wilson Writing Specialties, is a B2B enterprise (a business whose main customers are other businesses). The use of social media marketing has risen in B2B companies as well. In fact, CMI has done their own segmented research for B2B small businesses that shows similar results to social media marketing performed by B2C companies.

Social Media’s Role Within Our Marketing Strategies 

With all of this in mind, and with the proven rise in social media marketing, the one question I immediately found myself asking was:

How does social media fit into my overall marketing strategy?

In helping answer this question, I quickly realized that social media is simply another piece that neatly fits into the puzzle of our overall marketing strategy; a strategy that when carefully pieced together, creates a simple picture of our overall marketing puzzle.

Piecing Together a Marketing Strategy
As a fellow professional and small business owner, creating an overall marketing strategy has be akin to the days of pulling up a chair to a big table top and working on a 1,000 piece puzzle.

Except this puzzle is attached to my livelihood.

Just like a 1,000 piece puzzle, creating a simple, effective marketing strategy takes:

• A little bit of patience
• A few rounds of research
• An openness to some trial and error
• A clear, final picture

Even though our final marketing strategy can be simple, the process to piece it all together can be confusing. After all, with the endless stream of information that invades our laptops and mobile devices each day, it sometimes feels like we’ve inadvertently added another piece to the marketing puzzle, quickly taking it from 1,000 pieces to 1,001, 1,002, 1,003, and so on.

Because social media is on the rise in a very big way, it may seem like it’s one of those additional pieces that we have to cram into the puzzle, hoping it fits and then contributes to our final picture.

But instead of forcing social media into the picture, perhaps we should accommodate it into our strategy in a very simple, yet practical way.

With all the research and rise in social media marketing, I decided a long time ago to accommodate it as an additional piece into my marketing strategy, rather than forcing it to become my overall marketing strategy.

The Pieces of My Own Marketing Puzzle

Basically, I created three themes into my overall strategy. Inside each of those themes are tactics (or pieces) that help complete the final picture. Social media is simply one of those pieces:

Referral and Word of Mouth:

Tactic – Relationship marketing
Tactic – Networking
Tactic – Social media

Content:

Tactic – E-newsletter
Tactic – Articles and books
Tactic – Social media

Prospecting:

Tactic – Direct mail
Tactic – Self-introductions
Tactic – Social media

Each one of the above tactics (or pieces) has its own style that I’ve customized to fit my business, audience, prospects, and clients. The social media tactics I use are just another piece to the puzzle,helping create a more complete, clearer picture.
Whether your marketing strategy is a completed work of art, or whether you’re currently piecing all your tactics together, allow the rise in social media to serve as one of those pieces. After all, most of your audience, prospects, and customers are living, writing, and doing business all over the social media spectrum.

However, you have to do some research and become a bit selective as to which platforms best suit your marketing needs. Doing so will help create thatclear, final picture of the marketing puzzle.

Keep working on that puzzle.

As you do, take a few minutes to post, tweet, youtube, link, or instagram your progress to the rest of the listening world. Because quite simply, you’re an expert, and someone’s life and business is waiting to be enhanced by what you have to say.

 

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