In today’s day and age, marketing and advertising revolves around more than simple television and radio advertisements. In case you’ve been sleeping for the past twenty or so years, the Internet has literally changed the way we act, conduct business, and behave. The same can be said of how we conduct our marketing and advertising for business. No longer is television the gateway of choice in regards to marketing. The Internet has transformed the marketing situation in the country and social media has also played a very large role in business marketing. The three biggest social media websites, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn are quickly becoming must-have resources for any business that is interested in establishing an online presence.Facebook is the best known of the three major social networking websites, only because it has been around the longest and has the most members. When people think of Facebook, they primarily think of it as a place to “hang out” and interact with your friends. However, the Facebook platform offers a powerful tool for marketing managers to advertise their business with. To begin, you must create an account for your business. This process is very easy and self-explanatory. After your account is created, you can then create what is called a “Page” for your business. From this page you can then recruit fans and likes,which promotes your page and gets your business more recognition. After you have a sufficient amount of likes and fans, you can start running promotions on your Facebook page to generate more activity for your business.
TWITTER
Twitter is a relatively new type of social media platform in that it consists only of short pieces of information that is broadcast to all people that are following you. The messages can only be 140 characters long, but there is no limit to how many “tweets” you can send per day. To start using Twitter, you first have to create an account, which is easy enough. After your account is created, you need to attract followers. The easiest way to do this is to “follow” other people, and in return they will follow you. Start tweeting about things related to your business and in no time you will have business coming from Twitter.
LINKEDIN
LinkedIn isn’t as well-known as Facebook or Twitter, but it is still a powerful platform for businesses. However, unlike Facebook or Twitter where the main goal of any business is to advertise and attract new customers, the primary goal of a business on LinkedIn is to attract and manage their employees. The primary aspect of LinkedIn involves businesses creating accounts and profiles and then managing their contacts and other interests on the page. Aspiring professionals and students can create accounts as well from which they can then interact with the businesses. This is a great way to meet potential future employees and keep the name of your business relevant within the professional world.
