There was a time in the digital world when marketing was merely confined to website building and pondering information over the first ten pages of Google. Today, the most powerful source of marketing – be it, online or offline is undoubtedly ‘Social Media’.

“Businesses don’t have a choice of whether or not to DO social media, their choice is how well they DO it.” Erick Qualman

One thing is certain: Social Media is now the best friend of business. How is this so?

Let’s see: According to Hubspot, 92% of marketers in 2014 claimed that social media marketing was important for their business. With 80% indicating their efforts increased traffic to their websites. Social Media Examiner said that 97% of marketers are currently participating in social media.

Entrepreneurs and companies young and old are all showing their presence online every day. LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook, not one is considered any less important than the other.

To understand the potential of any social media tool. one should first understand the four important steps coming from the viewpoint of Siddharth Rajsekar.  Social Media Expert Rajsekar was part of the The Franchise India Show 2016 and he shared these points:

• Strategize
• Optimize
• Socialize
• Monetize

How should an entrepreneur start?

According to Rajsekar, these are the keys for a successful start in the social media:

Community Building: The first step to engage real-time leads for a business is to attract a community and not directly sell your business to the customers. Deliver great content, sharing of information and focusing on building a community before looking to make a profit.

Turn Around Time (TAT): For any venture to excel, TAT plays a vital role. For Social Media Optimization to excel the (TAT) should be quick. A Blog Post, Twitter, LinkedIn or Face book campaigning should be operated as per the stipulated time of delivery or leads.

Engagement: Social Media is all about building a community and targeting an audience. Looking to get others interested in your brand and its value. For instance, A potential customer should walk up to any given business rather than the opposite happening. The mainstream perception lies on the fact that where there are more people, the business works better there.

Driving Sales: To drive sales for your business or even marketing yourself, daily content and advertising over Social Media tools have a major role to play. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn campaigning can influence a audience and drive enormous amount of sales. When advertising happens over social media, the marketing team should be clear about return of investment (ROI).

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s CEO said: “When you give everyone a voice and give people power, the system usually ends up in a good place.”

Let’s use that power properly.

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