The Internet these days covers all spheres of human life. Somewhere in highly developed countries, absolutely everything is based on it, and this accelerates the development of the economy, and indeed of society as a whole. In less developed countries, less attention is paid to the Internet and it cannot be said that this has a beneficial effect. But in any case, without the World Wide Web is already pretty hard to live.
Social networks, as a product and the continuation of the Internet, in turn, swept the world, they have an impact on politics, the economy, and popular culture. And this is only the beginning of this process.
Of course, business, being a dynamic and very sensitive sphere of activity, could not stay away from social networks and their widespread use. A partial or even complete (in some areas) transition of business to social networks is obvious throughout the world as a whole and in Russia in particular. Commerce spins both in the capital and in the province. Business promotion on social networks is noticeable everywhere. Khabarovsk, for example, is a clear illustration of success. Businessmen of this city in the Far East are actively working in this structure of the Internet and are making good profits.
Training
The popularity of social networks has led to the emergence of a wide variety of teaching aids. One of them is “Promotion of business on social networks” by Natalia Ermolova.
This work shows the most important areas for the formation, preservation and development of corporate accounts, lists the most common mistakes and considers a logically clear strategy. These are not just tried and tested recommendations, but practical manuals that you can simply take and use. The reader will easily understand what pace and goals in front of him to determine and how to implement possible ways to solve them.
The book fully describes the intricacies of strengthening your business in the three most famous social networks. Ermolova N. gives interesting and very successful cases. She is one of the most successful specialists in the development and promotion of various corporate microblogging and popular accounts. Today she has approximately 50 thousand readers on social networks.
Business and social networks
It should be noted that for business, social networks are a large audience for the sale of manufactured goods or all kinds of services. There are hundreds of millions of interested users who may well be customers of businessmen, or at least have the opportunity to find out about the presence of a new company or its products, and then word of mouth will work. Therefore, promoting a business through social networks is now very important.
Distribution of products on social networks is a promising area for a significant number of firms of different levels - both international corporations, national holdings, individual entities, and for small firms of local importance. Such a methodology for the development and advertising of modern business is also effective in that the financial costs of an advertising campaign, in contrast to other methods of promoting a business, are relatively low, sometimes they may be completely absent.
Moreover, the development of business in social networks gives a fairly effective return, especially if you implement the strategy correctly. You can look in more detail in the book of N. Ermolova “Business Promotion in Social Networks”.
Sales growth as a goal of promotion
How can the promotion of goods and services on the Internet help in general? Among the existing leading goals that will ensure the effective promotion of business on social networks, the growth in sales of various products of the company. Within the framework of such a promotion strategy, the most effective development method will be advertising large-scale advertising companies in social networks, distributed specific goods and services. It’s not even so important to purposefully promote your own account or community of interests - network users who click on advertising links can then go directly to the official website and make purchases or search for the necessary information there.
Business development
Changing the position of a new brand, a certain product or service will be the next goal of promotion. This is an essential step in promoting a business on social networks. Work is being done in other ways. The best option is to create a specialized page or a whole community and increase the number of subscribers (participants). In particular, we are talking about the implementation of contests that push to increase the volume of reposts of recordings, inviting acquaintances to the community, and so on.
Business stabilization
Promotion of business on social networks is a complex phenomenon. It’s not enough to appear on the Internet, you also need to gain a foothold in this market. It is necessary to strengthen customer loyalty to the company. This is the most difficult task, for the solution of which a systematic and carefully planned activity is needed. Here you will need well-designed accounts (communities), regular publication of the latest news, timely reaction to complaints and questions of community members, the ability to optimally resolve acute situations. Of course, this activity requires a special competent employee of the company. For large organizations - even a number of similar employees, a whole marketing department specializing in social networks. This is usually an SMM manager. Promotion of business on social networks will be largely in his hands.
With all this, the presence of a direct dialogue between the consumer and the representative of the business itself is always a clear competitive advantage over other firms. An SMM strategy needs to be approved.
A bit of theory about SMM
Seeing in modern Social Media Marketing as just a method of mass, annoying notifications (spam) and reviews is not only not relevant today, but mostly completely ineffective. Users want to see beautiful, informative, interesting ads, not spam. Nowadays, SMM-promotion of a business on social networks is one of the main ways to show your business to potential customers. In some areas of commerce, SMM promotion is the most effective way to build a brand. The materials of the last year show that 85% of modern users have an account in at least one of the social networks. This allows us to assert that with the help of SMM you can effectively develop relationships with your audience.
Serious experts in the field of Internet marketing suggest that the leading tasks of any commercial promotion are as follows:
- interest a potential client with your business offer;
- make him a buyer who comes back again;
- to win his loyalty;
- get new customers who appeared on the advice of this buyer.
In order to get such a result of word of mouth and multiply the number of customers by recommendation, you need a clear SMM strategy and good quality. Promotion of business on social networks, no matter how trivial it may sound, will mainly go through quality goods and services that the buyer will not be ashamed to show and advise his friends. SMM promotion will be effective only in this case.
In contact with
VKontakte (vk.com) is one of the largest social networks, leading in RuNet by the number of active users. The number of accounts reaches almost 300 million, of which approximately 60 million are active participants. Basically, the age of users is 17-35 years. The main problem for the business in this network is that it covers a relatively considerable percentage of people with a low level of financial solvency (high and high school students, unemployed).
The strategy of promoting a business in social networks has its own characteristics. The potential for VKontakte business development is quite serious:
- Targeted commercial advertising (demonstration of advertisements targeted at certain categories of the target Internet audience) with a certain cost per click or impression.
- Creation of public web pages or communities for the development of the sphere of sales of goods and services.
- Placement of various advertisements in well-known mass thematic or general communities free of charge or with payment.
- The appearance of advertising in thematic or general applications and interesting games.
The optimal material for increasing the interest of users of the social network "VKontakte" will be a fascinating thematic beautiful picture with a small description of the community's products.
Facebook
Facebook (facebook.com) is a large global social network, one of the best social networks for promoting a business. Less than 1.5 billion users are registered in it, 50% of them constantly show significant activity, the volume of the Russian-speaking segment is about 10 million. On Facebook, and this is its difference with the VKontakte social network, there are mainly users of average and even high social status, middle age (25 to 45 years), the proportion of insolvent users is minimal. Prominent businessmen and popular politicians own their own Facebook accounts.
The leading distribution options for products and various services on Facebook:
- Targeted commercial advertising.
- Design and distribution of their data from public Internet pages.
- Widespread advertising on well-known thematic web pages.
The optimal advertising on the Facebook social network is an informative, purely thematic publication of various sizes with an interesting announcement and an enticing picture.
Business development on Facebook is suitable for those products and services that are aimed at professional, educated people. The social network is also suitable for the dissemination of various conferences, scientific and commercial seminars, business trainings, various sites of a general informational nature.
Classmates
Odnoklassniki (ok.ru) is the very first social network that managed to become popular in RuNet. In our time, its popularity has declined slightly, but now there are approximately 200 million registered users, a little more than 45 million visit the social network daily. Business promotion in social networks can not do without Odnoklassniki. The leading difference here is that among users there are a lot of adult participants, even of retirement age. The average age of users here is the highest (unlike other Russian social networks) and reaches 25-50 years. Moreover, part of the Russian-speaking network users are emigrants permanently residing abroad.
The most optimal options for distributing business in Odnoklassniki:
- Targeted commercial advertising.
- Advertising in applications and games.
- Formation of thematic groups.
- Advertising in other people's famous thematic or local social groups.
The optimal advertising content for the distribution of products of a particular company in Odnoklassniki will be an interesting story of a fun or socially significant type, which in between advertises your own brand. Distribution of business in Odnoklassniki is aimed at the simplest, most ordinary people, mainly the elderly, it is also possible for goods and services suitable for the widest audience, sites of popular media.
Twitter
Twitter (twitter.com) is a popular social network, the specificity of which is in small messages. A variety of people own their accounts here, among them there are popular cultural figures and famous politicians, up to and including presidents.
There is much less potential for spreading a business on this network. At the same time, if necessary, you can create a hashtag of your brand and distribute it through advertising in popular accounts with a huge number of subscribers.
For development on Twitter, it is necessary to publish a concise message, if possible, with hashtags containing a link to your own site.
This simple way to spread the business is optimal for almost any Internet project. It is in this network that the role of the SMM manager is enormous. Promotion of business on the social network Twitter will be in his area of responsibility.
Instagram
Instagram (instagram.com) is a social network that has gained popularity as a platform for publishing photos and small (up to about 15 seconds) videos. The most popular social network among young people. Business promotion on social networks on Instagram can be used to spread your brand by posting any thematic pictures and videos in your account and acquiring such publications in the most popular thematic accounts.
For distribution on Instagram, you need high-quality, impressive, humorous, interesting pictures and videos. When posting, it is possible to use hashtags, like on Twitter.
Spreading the business on Instagram is perfect for growing the popularity of youth product brands.