Experiences with Social Media Marketing for Business?

I have a small insurance agency in South Baldwin County, AL.
Having been open for a year and after doing some research on my competitors, I began social media marketing around 6 months ago and am pleased with the results. I blog monthly and created original content, and it has improved my SEO (Search Engine Optimization) tremendously.

I don't know what kind of industry you're in, but I spend around $50/month of social media marketing and it more than pays for itself. I am going to double that expenditure next month, and hopefully the results will remain constant.

People are always on facebook and as long as you keep on consistent approach and keep your brand strong, you should see positive results.

I also advertise through Vivial, who I pay $89/month for 10,000 impressions locally through various websites (yahoo, aol, sports illustrated, cbs, etc) and I am pleased with them.

FWIW, I am 33 and comfortable with online media.

Sidenote II: I looked at my google analytics this morning, and I have been viewed 1,630 times since 5/1.
37 website visits.
A whooping 96% of those views have been mobile, while 1% have been on the computer (3% on tablet). So, if you have a website, make sure it is mobile friendly.

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. I blog monthly and created original content, and it has improved my SEO (Search Engine Optimization) tremendously.

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This is a great way to drive your website, imo. If I see an ad on here or faceback or wherever I rarely visit, but you drive people to a website through answering another question. If I were in insurance for example, I would blog weekly or so explaining simple concepts. The fact is most people don't understand insurance hardly at all. They pay their premiums every month and are done with it. It would take a professional an hour tops to write something on one issue in Lehman's terms a week. It's free other than your time and drives traffic. Once the customer is there they realize "this guy can explain stuff on my level, I'll give him a call."

You would want to do other things as well, but I think this is one area that is under utilized.

ETA: Sorry for choppy sentences. On mobile

I get consulting work to create content.

And I am building a business off original content. I have only generated a few K off of it, but its accelerating and I expect by the end of the summer it could be full time gig.

I am happy to give you some tips.

What type of business?
what are you trying to do?
who is your target audience?

Facebook ads are OK, they can generate what you want but they are also expensive. Its only a small part of a social media strategy.

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Hawkeye95

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What type of business?

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I'm a one-man notary business. It's just a side business/hustle at this point. Figured I'd try to leverage as much low-cost/low-risk (read: free) opportunities to market & advertise as I can to see if it generates any biz.

Honestly content right now. I'd just like to see if working a bit harder to create some content for places like IG and FB can create more biz than my current method.

I'm super wary of anything that would blow up overnight or pay for thousands of hits or likes, etc. Partly because I don't really believe it's legit for starters. But mainly because I want to make sure what I have on my plate is something I can handle (obviously because this is a side business and I'm working FT and am happy with that).

I don't want to get into any situation where I'd turn work down that was generated by marketing because I'd feel like I was p!ssing money away on both ends. But I'd be lying if I didn't admit that I'd like to see just how much I could scale.

Giving myself a decision to make at some point in the future has always been a goal. I doubt doing some stuff like taking pictures of Notary Docs for IG and posting a blog on FB about a Power of Attorney or Loan Docs will get me there any quicker.

Just interested in seeing what it can do to grow biz.

We are a third generation CPA firm. We just hired our first ever "practice growth specialist" i.e. marketing person this January. We never had social media. We had a website that is honestly worse than not having one at all.

He sits across the hall from me. He is also a personal friend of mine.

He has developed a Facebook page, LinkedIn page, and twitter account. We haven't used it much yet, because we are also going through a name and logo change. Once those are live, we will launch the social media accounts for real.

I don't think we are expecting to get a ton of business out of it and I doubt we will ever pay for ads or sponsored material. What we will likely use it for is to connection people and for thought leadership.

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Hawkeye95

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Start blogging/creating content

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Already in the plan.

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Start tweeting (10 tweets per day)

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The plan is to push IG posts to Twitter (each instance) and to FB here and there (based on pic quality/content)

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Instagram / dunno

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Daily, multiple times a day.

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Use services like buffer/crowdfire to make it easier

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Haven't investigated.

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baobabtiger

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It's one of the only avenues that can reach the masses consistently.

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Agreed totally. Just wondering what everyone's experience with it has been, etc. This thread has been fantastic as far as feedback. Thanks to all who participated.

We still see that for most professionals like accounting, legal, medical, engineering, etc. that social media advertising is a waste of time and money.

We have found that a well developed web page that is mobile friendly is the way to go. No one wants to connect with a true professional through Facebook.

When people are dealing with professional services, they still want to sit across a desk or around a conference table with you.

Social media marketing is effective. But, it's usually not THE MOST EFFECTIVE form of marketing for a company. I work in online marketing and I've seen a lot of companies hire someone or spend gratuitous amounts of money on social media before they've even given thought to SEO or a solid website.

Take it from someone who works professionally on social media, content marketing, email marketing, pay-per-click-advertising, etc...don't focus on social media marketing first.

I'd love to talk with anyone about how to help their online marketing efforts.

I do PR. Part of my job is helping small businesses with social.

Whether it works for you totally depends on what type of business you have and who your audience is.

Low barrier to entry (like a restaurant) or something that can be purchased online are great. High barrier, narrower audiences, it isn't as easy to see results.

Facebook is a good place to start because through their ads portal you can run FB, Instagram and the audience network - aka third party sites reaching your audience.

It is important to know where your audience is. Instagram is much better for younger consumers than for older, for example.

It is also important to know what they want and to target them appropriately. If you sell expensive organic diapers, not only do you need to target parents with children of the right age, you need to narrow your audience to include those with higher incomes and, if you truly want the best results, those most likely to be interested in organic products. You are wasting your money and time otherwise.

Check your results. Generate the FB pixel code and make sure it is plugged into the back end of your website correctly. Test different ad goals. Consider mobile-only call now ads if you have a specific geo location and no website. Write content in the appropriate voice. Adjust your audiences frequently. And do not run an ad on a platform like FB and forget about it. You need to check your messages and comments and make sure potential customers aren't missed.

Beyond social ads, your website needs to be mobile-friendly. The functionality of your site and how good your customer service is will make or break your success. It doesn't matter how good your marketing is if your customers have poor experiences once they act.