Twitter, Facebook, Blogs and LinkedIn get all of the attention in social media marketing, but there are a number of other tools that can get great results that are less popular. Leveraging these social media tools can drive sale, traffic and leads to your website or business.
1. SlideShare
Slideshare is a site where you can post powerpoint slide presentations and share them. You can also link it directly in to your LinkedIn account (in this way all of your presentations are posted on your LinkedIn page), integrate it with Facebook or share it on your blog. Slideshare is great because it doesn’t take much extra work – if you have already created a slide show it takes about 5 minutes to post it and tag it on SlideShare. The good news is that you can get a lot of visibility on Slideshare – last year my presentations got nearly 10k views. While SlideShare doesn’t refer a lot of traffic back (it isn’t really set up that way) you are making high quality awareness impressions.
2. Webinars
A webinar is a live session that includes audio (through a dial in # or online) and video (usually a slideshow). Webinars can be relatively easy to create and run and are a great way to showcase thought leadership in a specific space. In addition, you can recruit guests vs. attempting to create all of the content yourself. One of the other benefits of webinars is that people have to provide their email address to join, which means that you can collect the email addresses for lead generation. Using a service like gotowebinar you can run webinars for under $100 per month. The AMA (American Marketing Association) runs webinars as a way to provide extra value to their members and to get new ones.
3. Video
Today, creating video is easier than every – you can do it on your phone or on a flipcam that costs only a few hundred bucks. Video is a very powerful medium – it creates connections that are stronger than print or images. You can create a video podcast by recording yourself speaking about a subject or by interviewing other people. Check out GaryVee who does a variety of videos to promote his business – his passion and energy come across so strongly on video. A good friend Deborah Cole Micek (@CoachDeb) consistently uses video to connect with her audience by interviewing experts at conferences. The good news about video is that it can be easier to create than blog posts and make a stronger connection.
4. Email Newsletters
OK, so email newsletters are not technically social media, but they make a great marketing tool to help you promote and draw attention to your social media efforts. You can set up a newsletter in under an hour for $20 a month on a site like Constant Contact (which is what I use). You can use your newsletter to promote your content (blog, video, etc) and keep your audience informed. In addition you can use your newsletter to promote the rest of your social media assets – link to your twitter and Facebook to connect.
5. Search (Search Engine Optimization)
No matter what category or industry you are in people are searching for your product online. It is important that you consider search as well as the key words and links that you use when building your social media assets. Many companies get over half of their leads and website traffic from search, and some of our best clients have found us through search. Search is a great marketing tool because it connects people at the time that they are looking for you. Creating key-word rich social media sites can help you get to the top of search engines.
