Building a Fully Engaged Audience with Social Media – Part 1 of 3

Whether you’re developing a web based business, or simply trying to improve brand awareness of your brick and mortar store, you have to add social media to your marketing mix. The real trouble with doing this is that it’s just too confusing. There are a lot of different channels and methods to consider.

So, how can you, as a mere mortal, learn everything necessary to find success with your social media marketing efforts? Well, for starters, identifying the major social networks will help. Knowing how these networks are used will also help you stand out from the crowd and actually find success with your efforts.

Relevant Statistics Regarding Social Media Usage

There are four major social networks right now:

• Facbook
• Twitter
• Pinterest
• Instagram

Each one of these networks is used very differently from the rest. Once you understand common etiquette, you’ll be able to interact with their users more effectively. So, what do you need to know about each of these networks?

Facebook has just over 1 billion active monthly users. The potential for exposure is huge. Users of this network interact with each other through status updates. They can also “like” and “share” the things they find interesting.

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You can publish content directly to Facebook, or share the links and excerpts of the content on your site, including blog posts, images, and items for sale. Users aren’t very picky when it comes to liking content, but getting them to share it can be rather difficult. When properly implemented, facebook can quickly cause your content to go viral, which leads to massive exposure, traffic, and hopefully profits.

Twitter has just over 500 million users, but after accounting for inactive and spam accounts, the real number is closer to 300 million. Users share their thoughts and links through “tweets,” which go out to their friends. A well composed tweet can go viral just as effectively as a post on facebook.

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Pinterest and Instagram are two relatively new social networking sites. Both have user bases comprised mostly of females and focus on sharing pictures. Pinterest uses a “pin board,” and users like and “repin” the stuff they like. Instagram allows users to upload and share photos. Both of these sites can also be used to take content to a viral status, but in a completely different way than Facebook or Twitter.

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Pinterest has over 10 million active users, while Instagram has over 100 million.

Using these Social Networks for Marketing

There’s no doubt that you’re ready to jump in and start pushing your content to these social channels. Before you do that, though, there are two additional networks that you should learn about – they’re a bit more “underground,” but their user bases are much more tech savvy.

You also need to learn how to build a complete social media marketing blue print to do any of this effectively. Before you do that, get ready to learn about two social media sites that you may never have heard of, including how they’re used.