Social media marketing can be a phenomenal marketing channel for small businesses to exploit. It is a great example of how you can effectively communicate your message to a targeted audience.

The benefit of social media for companies is impossible to ignore and in order to help our web design business clients at James Blake Internet (JBI) achieve the best possible results through this channel; we have laid out five key important points that are essential to understand and effectively utilise this marketing angle:

1.Your brand or company should take a holistic, goal-oriented and authentic approach to social media marketing, rather than focusing on any one platform or method.

Every company, brand or product could be and should be “social”. Conversations about almost every brand and related products are happening everywhere, you just need to be a part of that conversation to gain the maximum benefit out of it. Explain your brand and approach without preaching or sounding like an instruction manual.

2.Use the tools available to reach to your target audience. One of the best ways for small businesses to leverage social media marketing is to use various social networks in combination with each other. The examples below helps us in understanding the marketing mix for a effective and efficient social marketing:

• Connect your Twitter account to Facebook ( or the other way round).This will let you leverage your time on Twitter and will also update your Facebook fans.

• Connect your LinkedIn profile to your Word Press blog. This will automatically update your LinkedIn profile with your most recent blog posts and hence reach to the desired audience.

• Integrate Twitter or Facebook tools onto your website. The use of ‘ShareThis’ tool enables readers to quickly share content on multiple social networks.

We need to keep in mind that not all social networks will make sense for every business. Learn which networks are best for your on-line business strategy and find ways to leverage combinations of those networks to make your marketing more effective.

3.Posting relevant content is important. Remaining true to your brand promise is the best way to approach social media. Utilise your brand promise as guiding principles across all your social media efforts. It should be reflected in the content created, the tone used, and the promotional programs being launched.

Though more attention is focused on social networks than on company blogs these days, however, blogs still continue to offer great value for small businesses as they help in listening, learning and engaging in conversations with your customers and as we know understanding your customers requirements is half the battle!

4.Make promotions fun. Marketing is not a campaign but a commitment. In order to build long-term relationships with your clients you need to invest in them genuinely..

A social media programme is a commitment to engage and communicate with clients when and where they want to communicate.

5.Attention to details matters since much of social media marketing is human capital it involves more thinking and execution.

The best way to start a social media campaign is by listening.Set up Google Alerts to look for conversations about your brand or product.Then participate in the conversation and just remember to be authentic, honest and transparent.

A brand which is active on social media and interacts with its clients will carry more credibility and rally more supporters in the future.

My marketing manager said SEO doesn’t achieve instant results?

Your marketing manager is correct to a certain degree in that SEO will not have instant results, i.e. if we start a campaign tomorrow your inbox will not be flooded with new leads. SEO is a medium term strategy to make you an on-line leader in certain areas. Generally we at James Blake Internet say we can make a difference within 3-6 months.

If you do need instant results then we would suggest mixing an SEO campaign with a pay per click campaign (PPC). This will help you get the benefits in both the short and medium term.

However we believe that internet marketing needs to be looked at in conjunction with other aspects of your business such as your offline marketing in order to maximise the potential of any campaign.

a) Establish a brand – what does your business really offer? By this we don’t mean fancy design and new logos etc, Is there an area you specialise in within your field and want to tell the World (on-line and off-line). Once this is established then there is a message to spread (online and offline)

b) Once you have established the brand and the message we suggest you look at all your marketing to see if this reflects your message. If you have a current website its vital you look at the design and structure to see if it’s in line with your brand and message. When people hear about your business they often go on-line to see who they will be visiting (even if referred). Does your website convey the message that your marketing (again both on-line and off-line) is saying. Otherwise you will not be maximising the potential of your spend.

c) I would then look at how people will get to hear about your business e.g. How many people will search on-line to find your business or how many people will use the yellow pages etc. If you feel that most of your business comes from referrals then that’s where you should now spend your money. If you think there is a strong percentage that search for your business on-line, i.e. Google, yahoo, Yell etc then this is the market that SEO can capture.

James Blake believe that online advertising should be done in conjunction with offline and not separately. Both need to have the same message as they complement each other.