Thoughts on Social Media Set Up?

[EPerceptions]

To put it mildly, I'm not a fan of the manic world of social media. But I know first hand the power of word of mouth, so I'm biting the bullet and jumping in. But I need to figure out my approach.

I've used facebook for family only, but I do have both a professional and a business page. Since I don't want my business to be to heavily dependent on personal name branding, I'm going to shift my focus to the business page. As a B2B business though, I'm not convinced FB will be worth the effort.

I set up a company page at Linked In since its more business focused, but it still feels heavily weighted towards individual skills and resumes.

Then there's twitter. I've been using it like an Rss reader to keep up with news and relevant market topics. Today I set up a profile for the company but due to system quirks I can't even show the full company name. Branding what appears to be sloppy work turns my stomach and that's not even addressing the username issues.

So do I stick with it even though its not consistent with other profiles? Do I simply use my personal name account in this case but rework it to be more focused on the company?

other ideas?

Thanks,
Kathy

 

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[Bigguns50]

Kathy...It would help to know what your business is. I'm NOT an expert in marketing, but there are those who are in this forum.

My startup, which is due to launch in 6 weeks(hopefully sooner), will be advertised heavily on Facebook Mobil, and other online mobil sites but this is because I know my market is there. I am going where my market is.

Here's an ad I came across today. Facebook: Buy Or Sell And Trends In Internet Advertising - Forbes

 

[EPerceptions]

Thanks Big gun, guess I'm not thinking straight sometimes. The Business I'm focusing on is stock photography. I'm primarily aiming at small digital publishers: Bloggers, Ebook authors, content marketers, etc.

I was planning to use social media as a marketing tool, not an advertising vehicle, to start with at least. After my post above, I decided to at least start. So I chose to keep using my name on twitter and have it feed the business page on facebook. Currently I'm just sharing occasional news and info of interest to my target market and am trying to decide on a longer term approach.

While I've been a freelance writer for over 15 years, I have focused on web content, business materials and magazine articles. This puts me in the current position of not having any major blog or industry specific site. My online archives are a mix of business, marketing, legal, gardening, green living etc. Not ideal for getting the attention of my target market.

This might sound irrelevant but I know that if I want to use social media for marketing then I need to create a draw. So I'm struggling with plans in this area. My desire is NOT to spend the next 15 years like the last: Writing my a$$ off. As far as I can tell though, social media depends on relationships and those are readily created through text content. So do I forget the touchy feely and just outright advertise? Or do I make the time to "socialize"? Still undecided. :/

 

[brycer9]

Get on tumblr and instagram and start building a following! Good potential to find targeted traffic there for photography

 

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[EPerceptions]

Aren't those primarily consumer markets? Commercial stock is aimed at businesses.

 

[Bigguns50]

There's a company here in Detroit (forget the name) that has grown very fast and are doing very well. If someone has a wedding planned, instead of hiring a videographer, they hire this company which sends them 5 video cameras to hand out to friends and family. They film whatever they want for the wedding and reception. They send the cameras back and the company edits everything, putting music and such to it. This makes it very personal, fun, and touching for the newlyweds, and saves them money.

They got their start with no $. They started posting wedding photos, and photos they new their market would be interested in on Pinterest.