Few people find the name Santa Fe synonymous with social media marketing, but that’s not for a lack of brick and mortar companies in and around New Mexico’s capital city who are using the internet to stretch the limits of their influence and grow their business in new and unique ways.
The reality is the Internet has no borders – these days you’re just as capable of reading Twitter updates from a Himalayan Sherpa as you are the latest incoherent ramblings of Charlie Sheen – and social media has become the great leveling tool that can help small-time businesses compete with major corporations.
When it comes to the cost effectiveness of marketing in general, there’s no cheaper or more effective way to go about it than by creating a social media presence for your business. Why spend money on billboard ads that only a small percentage of the local population will ever see (let alone pay attention to) when you can achieve widespread exposure by having your customers do the legwork for you, sharing web links to your company site with their voluminous number of Facebook friends?
So, what are the first steps?
Number one, build a website. Regardless of your company’s size – whether you’re a budding home-based craft maker or the owner of a well-established wholesale jewelry outlet with 50 employees on the payroll – a web presence is fundamental to your continued growth.
Next, take advantage of free social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to advertise yourself in creative ways. Get yourself listed with location-based mobile applications like Foursquare, Gowalla, and Facebook Places so that your customers can announce to their vast legions of online followers that they’ve “checked in” to your establishment. You might not think of this as a very effective means to get the word out about your business, but in practice it can be a powerful tool.
Don’t know the first thing about doing either one of the above? Join the club. If you think that every website in existence was created by a business owner skilled in HTML and with a little too much spare time on their hands, think again. You can buy software programs that are relatively simple to use (far simpler than learning how to program a website manually).
Or, you can partner up with a company like Flyline Search Marketing, a local social media specialist with a demonstrated knack for web design and a keen understanding of your local business landscape. Who knows? You might even get Susana Martinez (one of the most high profile Santa Fe residents heavily active in social media) to “Like” your Facebook page. Hey, it’s possible. Visit Flyline Search Marketing to learn more.
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