Using Offline Marketing to Drive a Social Media Following

Social media is a 2 way street and while a simple statement, I think many of us can be too entrenched in a broadcast marketing world to fully grasp what that means. I can tell you from personal experience that until you get over that hump of feeling like you aren’t making any headway, you may think you are marketing through social media…but you really arent. Social media is about opening a bilateral line of communication between buyer and seller, and building customer loyalty and brand awareness. It’s not about putting up a fan page and getting frustrated when they didnt come.
  
You will (if you haven’t already) hear from some overzealous bloggers telling you traditional marketing is dead, social media is the future be all end all, and various other hyped up statements. This may further confuse some on just how this new medium is supposed to replace what has always worked relatively well in the past. Don’t listen to it. Local business still does a ton of offline advertising, and one of the simplest ways a local business can accelerate the growth of a social media following is through using traditional avenues like email, print, tv, and point of purchase marketing to make customers aware of your pages on Facebook, Twitter and any other social application. Set up your pages and make people aware of them at any opportunity you can. With the majority of users also having mobile applications for their social networks, your opportunity to grab them is getting increasingly better as that adoption rises. I promise that those who put the time in now will not be left behind as traditional marketing does indeed continue to lose share to the internet. Plus you will have a better relationship with your customers, and a better product or service because of it.
 
Remember, this isnt a “broadcast medium”. Today’s consumer is more and more distrustful of traditional media because it’s so impersonal. Have conversations with your customers about your company. Offer promotions. Run contests. Disseminate news and content. Test new products and services. Create loyalty programs. Recognize your best customers. And every time someone tries to interact with your company, interact back. People who can interact with you will undoubtedly be more loyal customers. And to me personally, it’s rewarding to run a good, accessible business.
 
I will be soon talking more about viral promotions and loyalty programs that use social media and mobile devices to drive business. Until then, be innovative in your marketing and you will find that these new avenues bring back the very thing that made the great market economies of the past thrive…an open and personal interaction between vendor and customer.