Social Media: Using It To Your Advantage

By Megan Lehman on March 21, 2013

Social media has become a world wide marketing tool, used by professionals and amateurs in their fields all with similar goals: Create a following, market their product, and grow as a professional or a business. As a college student, social media gives you an edge that was not around 50 years ago. It gives you the opportunity to begin marketing yourself and building a fan base way before you graduate or even begin looking for that “big kid” job. The Marketing Donut, an online resource for social media marketing for small businesses, offers useful advice for the small business, as well as the individual. With these few tips from The Marketing Donut, you are sure to find a way to make social media work for you and your professional goals.

Your personal profile on any social media site is likely to be one of the first things a future employer will
see about you. Take some time to look at the profiles of already established businesses on different social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. What are they doing that gets your attention? Learn from what they are doing, and make it work for you. State the essentials and be honest. Let the readers know who you are by inserting a bit of personality, while still retaining a level of professionalism. Add pictures, a few of your personal accomplishments, update your profile regularly, and keep it clean. Do not forget, be lively! A boring profile will not get you very far. Just like when you met someone in person for the first time, your personal profile is the first impression you make. Make it count!

How do you get these people to read your profile? You need to attract people. How do you do this? It is actually a lot simpler than you may think; Update your status or send out a tweet at least once a day. Updating or tweeting more than two times a day though is a little obsessive and can potentially annoy your “followers”. Be welcoming, but not overwhelming.

People also want to know that they will be receiving a benefit from following you. Through promotions, offer the opportunity to receive free merchandise or the opportunity for your customers to be involved in what you are doing. These are two tried and true tips that are proven to add customers to your following.

Now you are probably wondering, “I understand that social media is great for marketing, but what kind of things can I do to market myself and/or my business to the public?” Market research. Set up surveys, host polls, do things that require your followers to state an opinion about your product. This will help you adjust your product or service to what the public wants and introduce possible customers to products or services that they did not know you offered. Respond to customer comments or messages within the same day that they are sent. This will boost your customer service and make your followers feel like they matter to you.

Social media has changed the way we grow and market ourselves, our businesses, and our services. It gives you an edge that cannot be matched. Take advantage of this opportunity to connect with a worldwide audience and watch your future take off.

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