Social media - marketing your brand to a wider audience

There are many businesses that don't fully embrace or appreciate the importance of Social Media. Some dismiss it as 'something for young people' or perhaps purely as 'entertainment and fun' for out of hours. Many believe that if their business is fine as it is, then why try something different? Some are probably a little overwhelmed by the options available to them. Here's Liv Design's brief starter guide.

Social media is not a replacement for current 'offline' marketing mediums (such as brochures, direct mail or advertising) or your 'online' media (websites and emarketing). It should be viewed as something to run alongside, and in partnership with, your current media methods. Not everyone can be reached as easily these days. More and more of our time is spent in front of a computer. The pressures and constraints of modern working life means that our focus becomes increasingly limited and our spare time ever-important. Working from home is becoming popular and businesses need to communicate 'on the go', both in and out of the office. Love it or hate it, speed, versatility, and instant communication is vital to every business.

The most important thing about promoting and advertising your product and services is to be seen. Without clients and customers you have no business. To raise your profile and get you should try every opportunity available and see what works best for your business.

So what is Social Media? 
Simple put, Social Media covers a wide range of online digital media that's used to communicate and interact with an audience. These include blogs, messaging, images, audio and video.

What Social Media options are available? 
There's a dizzying variety of options but here are some of the most popular platforms:
Blogs (Wordpress, Blogger, MySpace)
Used for news, stories and articles using a mix of text, images, audio and video
Microblogging (Twitter, Tumblr, Posterous)
Instant messaging for news commentary and opinion within a network
Video (You tube, Vimeo)
Sharing and viewing of video
Social Networks (Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, Bebo, Digg)
Social interaction and communication between a community, using a mix of text, images, audio and video
Image sharing (Flickr, Instagram, Photobucket)
Platform for uploading and commentary on photos and illustration.

So why should a business use Social Media? 
There are many invaluable reasons including:
• To raise company awareness and profile
• Advertise products and services
• Attract new business
• Find new suppliers and resources
• Opportunity to reach a wider, more diverse audience
• Increase knowledge and market awareness
• Share information, results, reviews and opinions
• Keep up to date with competitors

There are thousands of platforms available online, some generic, some very specific. Most have a number of uses and allow for sharing and linking of information between each other. Which platforms you chose to use will depend on what your business does and who your target audience is. Try out some of the most popular ones like Facebook and Twitter to get started. This will give you a feel for what to use it for and see how other businesses use them.