Social media are all networks for social communication such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Youtube. These are media where large groups of people share and communicate online. The very fact that there is a multitude of people gathered on one spot (website) is good enough for any marketer to consider opportunities for advertising and lead generation. Yet, so far the social media has proven to be only complementary to the other marketing channels and not a primary source of sales. There are two directions to work on when talking about social media:

Social media for lead generation

Most marketers would mostly be interested in this direction – how to attract new customers on Twitter and Facebook. There is one thing that you should keep in mind across all social media – making the users promote you has proven more effective than you promoting yourself via direct advertising! Although there are opportunities to advertise on Facebook for example, due to the nature of these media, it seems that it’s not very successful for customer acquisition. Yet, it has been very helpful in buzzing and building brand awareness. The best way to create buzz around a product or name is to stimulate viral content generation and make people talk about you.

Viral Content Generation

The idea is simple – you want to do something that people will share and talk about on these channels. The question is what? Here are some tips that have proven successful for other companies:

• Funny pictures and interesting news that could be re-tweeted or liked

  This is the most common way of getting exposure. You share a funny picture, people usually like it and thus more people see your picture and your brand name on their walls. The trick is to share not just any funny picture, but a picture that is associated to your brand somehow. Be the first to share an interesting piece of information with your own comment to it and people who read it will be willing to like and share it. This means that other people with whom them are friends will see that information and the original source (you) and are likely to check you out.

• Online games stimulating sharing and referring

  Another successful trick is to create games, which stimulate your facebook fans/followers to share certain content posted by you or generate content for you (share their love for you on their own walls), in return for which they would get a reward from you.

• Infographics

  Infographics are getting quite hot as their purpose is to present generally complex content in a simple and funny picture format. You can create an infographics for your brand showing how you address certain problem and share it on the social media. You can check an example that managed to get quite a few likes and shares here.

Social media for customer relationship management

Social media can be used to strengthen your brand awareness and building the brand image you look for. It also becomes a channel for receiving praises and complaints from your clients, which you should pay attention to and address carefully as it aids or tarnishes your image.