Are you looking for organic ways to get more customers for your online business? You may have decided to try one of the more common forms of digital marketing, social media.  One of the most common ways is to set up a Facebook Business Page to showcase your products and get your friends – and hence, their friends – to Like it. There are varying opinions on whether it works, how it works and why it should – or shouldn’t – work for specific business models. But if you have never done it before, here are some basic principles of social media marketing (SMM) you need to know about.

• No matter what kind of business you have, ‘the customer is always right’ is an excellent adage to go by, but even more so in social media marketing. Why? Because if you try to argue with a customer, it will soon be all over the media, often to the detriment of your business. So take hasty steps to make that customer a happy camper.
• Don’t offer personal triviality. Potential customers don’t want to know what you like for breakfast. They want to know about the quality of your product and whether your company offers returns.
• Don’t be satisfied with a business page. Do a paid ad as well. It will promote your product and people that see both will trust you more.
• Take part in the community, don’t just post and run. If you befriend people, especially those that are considered influencers, you’ll have more success yourself. But be genuine and sincere, don’t just do it for selfish reasons.

• Be positive. People have enough negativity to cope with. They love to see how people rose to meet a challenge. Even just being happy and positive about little things helps.

• Offer value to your followers. You reap what you sow, so when you offer others something for free you will be rewarded because people will talk about it.

• Study your analytics with programs such as Google Analytics, to see the results of what you do. Not everything will bring consequences, so you must focus on those who do. To find out what they are, you need analytics.

• Learn and apply the latest trends because everything evolves and changes over time.

• Be a frequent poster for the best result. People forget quickly.

• Don’t spread yourself too thin. If you try to own all the social media marketing platforms, you won’t have time for anything else. Choose one or two of your favourites.

• Have a schedule/roster for what you will post, and when. A specific plan is always easier to implement. You can plan up to 6 months in advance so you will always know what you are doing ahead of time.