Consumers use social networks every day, sometimes for hours at a time. These sites are useful to get in touch with friends or family, but they are also great marketing tools for businesses like yours.
Facebook is extremely popular. Your potential customers probably use this site regularly, so you should create a page for your business. Write good descriptions of your activities and products and post pictures of your products. Post updates regularly: you should consider sharing pictures or videos to attract more attention. Remember that people will see your updates in their newsfeed, along with what their friends are posting. You are competing for attention and need to get your potential customers to click on the link you are sharing or visit your page to react to what you wrote. You can also use Facebook to encourage people to share your content with their friends, for instance through contests or rewards.
Twitter is becoming an increasingly popular network. If you find that your target audience is using this site, create your profile and start writing short updates. Twitter allows you to post shorter updates: the competition for attention is even tougher than on Facebook. You cannot display pictures or videos in your updates, but you can share links to this kind of content through TwitPic and similar services. When you share a link, make sure you shorten the URL by using bit.ly or shortURLs for instance. Post your tweets regularly, and do not hesitate to share the same content two or three times throughout the day to make sure everyone sees your tweet.
There are many other social networks you can use. Ask your customers to fill out surveys about the social networks they use, and create additional profiles if you notice your target audience is using other sites, such as FourSquare, Pinterest, DeviantArt or MyYearBook to name a few. Some of these sites are designed for a certain subculture or target audience, and there might be a site that corresponds to the audience you are targeting. Every site is slightly different in the content shared and in the connections people establish. You need to explore different options, and find out for yourself what works best. You can easily find a lot of information on marketing for Facebook and Twitter, but you might not be able to find useful information on other sites.
Make sure you connect your social network campaign with your other campaigns. When you update your site or your blog, post an update and a link on social networks. For SEO purposes, approach social networks as a way of creating back-links. Include these links in your profile, your updates and the comments you post to answer the customers you interact with on these sites. Place links to your social networking profiles on your site and in the signature of your emails. When you interact with customers, remind them that they can have access to updates and exclusive content by connecting with you on social networks.
Social networking is an important activity for most people, and you cannot afford to neglect this marketing opportunity. Developing a good social media marketing campaign might take you some time, but you will definitely benefit from using these sites.