Social Media In Niche Markets

Stephanie LichtensteinPresidentMicroMediaMarketing.com@microsteph @micromediamktg

Joe SousaJust an affiliate. No cool titleWhatDoesJoeThink.com@drcool73

Learn how to utilize social media marketing in conjunction with niche markets to generate followers, traffic, and sales.

Scott JangroPresidentMechMedia.comShareist.com@jangro.com

Why Social Media?

•It is where your customers are

•Very quick feedback

•Learn about your customers

•Engage targeted users

•It is always evolving

•Your competitors are doing it

•It is cost effective

Why Social Media? – Crazy Stats

•Facebook tops Google for weekly traffic in the US

•1 out of 8 couples married in the US met via social media

•Fastest growing demo on Facebook: 55-65 year old females

•50% of the mobile Internet traffic in the UK: Facebook

•78% of consumers trust peer recommendations. 14% trust ads

•60 million status updated daily on Facebook

•Don’t overlook social media!

Know the Game: Best Practices

•Post at least Monday-Friday

•Watch your FB/Twitter Pages throughout the day

•Follow niche keywords and competitors

•Direct traffic to your blog

•Monitor replies/comments/posts

•Respond in Real Time!

•Be Consistent

Facebook vs. TwitterFacebook Best Practices:

•Keep daily Facebook posts to a minimum

•Tag other applicable Facebook pages in your posts Twitter Best Practices:

•You can post multiple times a day

•Create posts unique to Twitter

•Don’t link your Facebook and Twitter accounts

Interact with Niche Leaders•Find who tweets in your niche•@ Tweet them and ask questions•Respond to their questions•Build a dialogue with them•People see them talking to you = more followers•Don’t be a stalker and become annoying•Many of these niche leaders will have blogs and once you build a relationship it could turn into guest posting opportunities•Repeat

Potential Pitfalls•Over Tweeting or posting– Have a purpose

•Auto-following – Your stream could become useless

•Auto posting – Could overload your followers

•Personal posts on “company” accounts

•Outdated tweets – Stay up on the conversation

Social Media and SEO•Number of followers, likes, etc.

•Interaction – Retweets, comments, @ posts

•Are people talking about you?

•More than just Facebook and Twitter• Youtube• Google+• Curation platforms• Yelp, Foursquare, Google Places, etc.

•Conversation = Relevance

Other Platforms•Youtube, LinkedIn, Digg, Flickr, Google+, StumbleUpon, etc.

•Niche forums and communities

•Content curation and sharing platforms

•Pick the platforms that work for you

•Better to focus on a few than slack on many

•The methods might be different but the concepts apply across many platforms

Rich Media: Images, Videos & Links

Check out the Competition•Follow the company on LinkedIn

•Connect with their Facebook page

•Create a private list of competitors on Twitter

•Subscribe to their blog through RSS

Recruit Rabid Fans

•Include links to your social media sites in your email signature and marketing materials

•Add buttons to your website linking to your social media accounts

•Ask your personal network to connect—”Suggest to Friends” on Facebook

•Use Facebook Ads to build followers

•Publish useful content regularly

•Build good karma: promote other industry thought leaders

#FollowFriday and Follow Back

Show Your Company’s PERSONality

Flo, the Progressive Girl

StickerGiant founder John Fischer

Have a Game Plan

• Determine what social media platforms you want to engage on

•Establish clear social media guidelines for your team

•Use a consistent brand voice

•Create an editorial calendar to plan content

•Don’t give up on your plan – think long term

Other Random Tips•Weekly themed posts

•Shout outs to clients, fans, employees, community members, etc

•Make sure your content is sharable

•Remember your audience

Tools•Wefollow

•Google Analytics

•Facebook Insights

•Hootsuite

•Tweetdeck

•Mobile Apps

Follow Us For More Tips• Stephanie Lichtenstein•@MicroMediaMktg•@MicroSteph•President and Founder of MicroMediaMarketing.com

• Joe Sousa•@drcool73•Whatdoesjoethink.com

•Scott Jangro•@jangro•Shareist.com