One of the most powerful parts of any successful business person’s digital marketing mix is using social networking sites to promote their website. The most popular are Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn. Learning all of their features can be a daunting task so how can you use them to drive traffic to your DJ business website? Read on because I’ll offer some tips that can make the learning curve for you much shorter. We’ll look at the top four sites and show you how to get the most out of them.
Facebook has been THE social networking website for several years. Most of your potential clients probably already have a profile and creating one for yourself is very easy. Facebook has several features that will allow you to connect with fellow DJs, and your past and future clients.
Create a Facebook Group
Facebook allows you to create groups that are essentially digital gatherings of people with a common interest in a subject. Start a group that is for local DJs or one for related events (such as weddings, Bar/Bat Mitzvahs, School Events, etc.). Place a link to your site at the top of the group page and invite as many people as you can. Use the group to link to related news and anything your think readers might find relevant.
Update Your Wall
Once you have established yourself on Facebook and have many friends, use it as a place to update everyone on new happenings. Use it to promote new specials you are running or to tout some new testimonials or press that you recently received. When you update your wall it will be prominent because it shows up in all of your friends news feeds.
Post Upcoming Events
Facebook’s built-in “upcoming events” is a powerful feature that lets you create an event page and invite others to attend. Use it to promote any events where you or someone from your DJ service will be present.
Connect With Past Clients
Use Facebook as a medium to find and connect with past clients that you think would be interested in hearing from you. Facebook allows you to be connected to them in an unobtrusive manner. Hopefully you can turn these ongoing relationships into a source of referrals for new clients.
Incorporate Facebook Apps Into Your Profile
Facebook has several apps built into it that allow you to connect to various tools that can help do some of the work for you. There are apps for Twitter, WordPress, Google Reader and even an app that let’s you track upcoming industry conventions, shows, meetings and cruises. These services allow you to seamlessly share news or links that you find with your contact list.
Place Targeted Advertisements
Facebook has an advertising system built into it that is affordable and let’s you connect with prospects. You can create targeted campaigns that reach your “perfect” potential customer. You can also track your ads and make modifications to improve them as you go. The ad system can be used to promote any specials you are running or find new clients.
Described as “SMS for the Internet”, Twitter is THE “microblogging” network that everyone uses. But how do you harness it’s power to reach thousands to drive traffic to your website and DJ business? Let’s take a look.
Complete the Bio Profile
The Bio section of your profile is basically a mini “About” page that lets you briefly describe who you are and further specify your business. Make sure the link to your site appears in this section.
Brand Your Business with a Background
Twitter allows you to upload a background for your page that is viewed by anyone that visits your page. This is basically free real estate where you can create an online billboard for your business. It can help highly your brand and image if done properly. There are several online tools that can help you build a background such as TwitterImage, TwitBacks, and TwitrBackgrounds.
Use Twitter Search
Twitter Search is a valuable tool for anyone wanting to drive traffic to their website. Search for relevant keywords and then join in the discussion that you come across. Make sure you use it as a tool to provide valuable information and not as a way to spread spammy promotion posts. In addition, you can also use Twitter search to “listen” to what is happening in your market. Make it a habit of searching for “Seattle Wedding DJ” (or whatever event type you focus on) to find conversations about DJs in your market. You might stumble upon someone looking for DJ services.
Find Partners
Use Twitter to find and partner with other businesses that are complementary to the DJ business. Find photographers, videographers, facility managers and other professionals and follow them. Reach out to them and offer to refer them to any client leads you might come across.
Share Links
Once you have established a few followers, you should start sharing useful links that are related to the mobile DJ industry and your target market(s). If you are sharing good links that educate your followers, then their natural tendency will be to investigate your profile and website.
Poll Your Market
Use Twitter to poll people about different aspects of your business. Ask questions and get instant feedback by tweeting questions to get people’s opinions on your business.
LinkedIn is one of the most powerful yet underutilized social networking sites on the web. A lot of people think that LinkedIn is mostly for job seekers trying to connect with companies but it is much more than that. Businesses are using it more and more to reach some of their goals.
Complete Your Profile
To get the most mileage out of your LinkedIn account you need to take the time to create a detailed profile. If you want people to read your profile and eventually click on your website then you need to complete your profile and make it as compelling as possible. If you Google someone’s name, one of the first things that will show up is your LinkedIn site (often before Facebook or Twitter.)
Increase Your Connections
The more connections you have, the more people will have access to your profile. Every time you take an action on LinkedIn (e.g., update your profile, join a group, recommend someone, RSVP to an event, etc., this shows up on the homepage of your 1st-degree connections). If you only have 100 connections, this limits the amount of potential clicks on your profile and website links per day. Constantly be updating and adding new connections.
Update Your Status
Much like Twitter, LinkedIn allows you to update your status so that others can see what you are doing or thinking right now. Your latest status is the first thing that pops up on your profile and is seen by all of your connections.
Join Industry Groups
Just like Facebook, LinkedIn has a built-in Groups feature that allows you to create and join groups of people that are interested in a related subject. Find and/or create groups for DJs in your market and any complementary businesses, as well.
Answer Questions
There is a Q&A section on LinkedIn that lets users post questions about any topic. Take the initiative to answer as many questions that are relevant to prospective clients as you can. This can help establish you as an expert in the field and build relationships with people.
YouTube is the second most trafficked website on the Web for a reason – it’s a fun and useful community for individuals and businesses alike. Let’s discuss how to use Youtube to optimize your company’s visibility in the major search engines. I’ll also cover how creating relevant YouTube videos is a great way to boost the visibility of your company.
Millions of people use the site, which is owned by Google, on a daily basis. Youtube.com is the top online video brand and the fifth most visited U.S. website. And according to a Forrester Research blog post, “any given video in the index stands about a 50 times better chance of appearing on the first page of results than any given text page in the index.”
What type of video should you make?
Many YouTube viewers watch video for entertainment reasons. Those who watch for educational purposes often want to be entertained simultaneously. So, it’s up to you to make a video about your product or service interesting to watch.
In addition to your company’s demo, other options include how-to videos and expert Q&As. You also can make an engaging video that’s indirectly related to your product or service, but still, generates name recognition for your company. Let’s say, top 10 tips for the perfect wedding reception, for example.
How can I ensure people find my video?
You may have a great video, but if people don’t know it exists, it’s not going to provide any benefit. Most online users find videos of interest by typing keywords into the YouTube search feature.
1. Put keywords in your video’s title, description, and tags. Since search engines can’t read video content, you must guide them by describing the content in these fields. When determining your keywords, think about the terms potential viewers would likely query, as well as what makes your video unique.
If your video shows how to do something, begin the title with “How to.” Also, make sure your description is written in complete sentences and that your company’s URL is at the beginning of these fields. The latter ensures that people can see it in the search results, which helps increase your website’s traffic.
2. Promote your videos on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. The more views, ratings and comments your videos get, the higher they’ll appear in search engine rankings. The potential for views, ratings, and comments increases when people in your social networks know you have new content. And since these people are your “friends” or “followers,” the chances of them rating your video favorably are relatively high.
Encourage them to provide feedback on your videos by commenting on their content when possible. An added benefit of linking to your videos on social network sites: It prompts others to link to your videos. Those links can increase your videos’ authority in search engines.
3. Embed videos on your blog or website, and encourage others to do so as well. A video embedded is a link in that it can boost your search engine rankings. Simultaneously, it can draw traffic to your site and other sites that have embedded the video.
It’s a good idea to include a description close to the embedded video on your site or blog. That makes the video easier to find in universal search engine results. In the description, you can link to your video on YouTube using keyword-rich anchor text. To track which sites have embedded or linked to your video, click on “Statistics & Data” below the video in YouTube.
Create Your Own Channel
Create a channel for your business where you can share videos that you create. This channel is a single location with its own URL where you can arrange your own and other’s videos for others to see. In addition, having a channel allows you to create a profile page and link to your website.
Create Playlists
Take the time to compile playlists of videos that you find relevant to your DJ business. Maybe videos of some of your lighting setups, your mic work or dances that you led. You can also include videos from other people that you think contribute to the overall theme of your playlist. Try to think of your playlist as a resource for people looking for quality content. Look at it as a service you are providing that helps boost your image and expertise and hopefully visits to your website.
Leave Video Responses
Another effective way of getting yourself seen is to leave video responses to another user’s clip. Video responses should be relevant content that matches the theme of the original video. Find videos from weddings and other events and leave video responses that are relevant. Make sure they don’t come across as spammy or you risk negatively affecting your business image.
Chat in the Streams
YouTube streams provide you another way to get involved and engage with other users directly by allowing you to share and discuss videos in real time. This allows you to share your videos with targeted users in a live environment and communicate with the people watching them. You can use this to get feedback on your videos by creating a ‘live event’. Make sure the event has a theme that is compelling and is relevant to your subscribers and friends.
Other Social Media Resources:
http://mashable.com/2009/10/28/small-business-marketing/
http://www.toprankblog.com/2009/04/social-media-marketing-tips/
Next up in this series, Mobile Marketing. Stay tuned…
