There’s an interesting article about the development of social media marketing in the corporate world in the latest edition of Marketing Week. It points out that, while most of the UK’s top retailers use Twitter and Facebook, too many companies are shouting and not listening, and this got me thinking about how SMEs use social media marketing.
When the article says shouting and not listening, it doesn’t mean companies have an over-fondness for capitalisation (although our copywriter may like to argue that point), what it is saying is that social media marketing is being treated too much as a one-way conversation. Naturally, conversations are much better and more beneficial when there’s more than one person involved.
Big companies can throw resources at the problem, draft in consultants and develop expertise, but that approach isn’t generally open to SMEs, which have to incorporate such development on a much smaller budget. This is where the importance of a business blog comes in. Posts don’t have to be written in-house (Chichester Design offers the service), but they can serve as a central platform for in-house social media use.
Link a business blog to Twitter and Facebook accounts and the posts can be used to nurture conversation. And businesses shouldn’t worry over content – “we don’t have enough interesting stuff to talk about” is a common cry – this is where a blog-writing service (and a copywriter) comes into its own. With the application of creativity and a bit of lateral thinking, there will be something to talk about every week.
I think SME owners have to set some of their own time or that of their employees aside for social media marketing, but the process can be made easier, more professional and less time consuming by investing in a business blog-writing service. As the article says, social media marketing is a busy place nowadays and, hence, benefiting from such a strategy requires a bit of thought.
To find out more about Chichester Design’s web design and development services, contact Ben on +44 (0) 1243 787542 or info@chichesterdesign.co.uk.
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