There are now 25 million Facebook users in the UK and it’s as common in the UK to have a Facebook account as it is to own a dog!
Social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and MySpace have hundreds of millions of people using them on a daily basis, and they are all doing the same thing: sharing and recommending stuff with each other. Just think, they could be sharing and recommending your business also… Just imagine that for a few seconds.
This has huge implications for your business, because as traditional advertising has become so cluttered it has also become un-trusted; and the power of the recommendation has become more valuable than ever. A Nielson survey found that people trust recommendations above all else!
In fact, 78% of those surveyed said they trusted the recommendation of other people.
And I bet you think that 100% of the people who have asked to receive emails from you on offers or newsletters trust you, don’t you? Well, sorry, but that is not the case. A survey by Forrester research found this amazing fact which has big implications for online marketing:
65% of the people who have SUBSCRIBED to your emails do not trust them!
Now, if you are an email marketer, you have just spat out your coffee all over your monitor or are picking yourself up off the floor, but… don’t fret my friend, help is on the way.
How big is this social networking and how do I tap into it?
Well, Facebook alone boasts more than 350 million active members, and is growing at a rate of 250,000 per day. More than half of its users return daily to spend an average of 55 minutes on the site and the average user has 130 friends.
But it gets better. There are now 19 million Facebook users in the UK and it’s as common in the UK to have a Facebook account as it is to own a dog; and on average 300,000 new people sign up to MySpace every single day, according to one website.
Now I see a MASSIVE opportunity here for your business because these social networks are recommendation door openers: your customers are probably already on these sites and would love to share their good experiences of you with their friends, who are your new prospective customers that you were previously unable to reach.
- Use the power of YouTube to draw people to your site
- Use these social networks to allow people to virally spread your site or products
- Put your blog and products in front of a massive new audience
- Promote events and new products; even take bookings and allow fans to spread the word for you
- Speed up business by sending new offer alerts to customers’ mobile phones
- Move stock or fill empty seats by sending offers instantly
- Create your own social pages to build fans and turn them into loyal customers
These prospective paying customers are now easily and instantly accessible to you; they’re even volunteering to recommend you to their friends, who are also looking for your services. Why let them go to your competition?
My Social Marketing strategies can help you use Social Marketing to build up trust, value and a following that will result in sales which will cost you nothing but the power of recommendation.
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