Jason Falls, CEO of Social Media Explorer, explains how business owners can take a strategic approach to social media marketing.
[Terry Evans, Entrepreneur.com] Many business owners become overwhelmed when attempting to figure out how to use social media to grow their business. But they don’t have to, according to Jason Falls, author and CEO of Louisville, Ky.-based Social Media Explorer, a social media marketing, digital marketing and public relations consulting service.
“In order to understand what you want to accomplish with social media, you first have to understand what’s possible,” Falls says. He encourages entrepreneurs to first identify one or more of these seven business goals for social media before even getting started:
1: Enhancing Brand Awareness
2: Protecting Your Reputation
3: Enhancing Your Public Relations
4: Extending Your Customer Service
5: Building a Community of Advocates
6: Facilitating Research and Development
7: Driving Sales and Leads
In this video, Falls shares examples of strategies business owners can use to achieve their social media goals.
“It’s not always about dollars. I think that’s something people get caught up on when they start using social media,” Falls says. “They’re like, ‘Okay, I’ve got a Facebook page, a Twitter account and a blog, so where’s the money?’ Well, you’ve got to figure out what you want to use social media for strategically and approach it like you would any other business [initiative].”