I hadn’t intended to write yet another article weighing the pros and cons of tying all social networks together to distribute the same information to different channels, but after reading MediaBistro’s article on the why it’s better not to update networks via auto-feeds, I realize this is still a topic that needs to be addressed. If you are serious about social marketing, you have the Twitter feed, the Facebook fan page, and probably now the Google Buzz attached to your GMail. A click of the mouse will integrate each with the others, plus you can add all three RSS feeds into your FriendFeed account for added exposure.

As the Media Bistro article intimates, however, somebody who keeps track of you via all social outlets may tire of seeing the same information everywhere he goes. Of course, one must consider that one’s Twitter readership may sorely outnumber the Facebook, or vice versa, and therefore an important tidbit shared in one place could be missed by the larger audience.

Are auto-feeds worth the risk of losing readership, especially if one estimates a person willing to track all of your social profiles is apt to patronize your business? Do you risk less conversion, or even neglect of a particular profile, if you pull the system apart?

Adding Variety to Your Social Marketing

It’s said in advertising that a consumer usually sees a product or service 5-7 times before making a decision to buy. So it is with eCommerce, where people bounce off and on a site for days while they discern if the company is worth their spending dollar. As I peruse Twitter, I find it’s not uncommon to see the same tweets recycled by certain account every several days. In theory it is probably a good practice, as I find the Twitter clients I use don’t necessarily catch every post added to my follow feed. When marketing to especially busy people, too, it never hurts to send reminders.

If you are concerned about alienating current and potential fans, there are methods to market that can help retain your sanity without forcing you to log into every single profile you own to make updates. As you map out your strategy, you have the opportunity to present the variety multi-account followers crave without skimping on information that needs to be widely broadcast.

Limit what social networks are connected: rather than link your Twitter to everything, choose what feeds into it. If you want to emphasize your presence on Facebook more, connect those two and leave your blog/RSS free. For times you want to really promote a blog post, do occasional manual Twitter udpates.

Make use of widgets: Rather than blast the same information to all networks, create a home base for visitors to check all of your profiles. Set up your blog sidebar with various widgets for Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc. As you attract readers, you can keep them on longer with the different information you provide there.

Use different profiles to emphasize different aspects of your business: For the multi-faceted company, experiment by assigning different branches of the business their own social network. Build a focus that attracts visitors and gradually promote your other interests through occasional cross-promotion.

Connecting all of your profiles provides ease of use, but only you can determine its effectiveness. Don’t be afraid to unlink chains on occasion to test analytics, and watch activity across the board to see what visitors prefer.

Small businesses today face more challenges than ever before. Years ago, many small businesses largely only had to compete for market share with the other businesses in the local area. The Internet, however, has changed this, and now small businesses are forced to compete head-to-head with other companies around the country and even internationally in some cases. This can make it difficult to stay afloat, much less turn a profit and grow your business! However, you can use small business coaching to grow your business to new levels, and this is largely done by learning the ins and outs of social media marketing.

What Is It?

Even if you are not familiar with the term “social media marketing,” you likely have a pretty good idea of how it works. Consider the time you spend on Facebook, YouTube and other social media sites. While your personal friends and family likely have connected with you on these social media sites, if you are like the millions of other people around the world who use these sites, you also have connected with some of the top businesses and companies that you do business with, too. These businesses are essentially reaching out to you and staying in touch with you as their consumer through social media marketing methods.

How Can Small Business Coaching Help?

Small business coaching for social media marketing essentially will teach you the ins and outs of how to not just use these websites to your advantage from a business standpoint but also how to use them in a completely time-efficient way. You absolutely can spend your entire work week each and every week trying to keep your business profile’s Facebook status updated, creating videos to send out into cyberspace on YouTube, and tweeting away on Twitter, but you surely don’t have time to do that! So learning how to use these sites in the most efficient and effective way possible is critical.

What Can You Expect From Social Media Marketing?

When you use small business coaching to maximize your marketing efforts on social media sites, you will find that it drastically increases traffic to your website and that the traffic is largely far more focused and qualified. By doing this, you will effectively generate more sales with less time and effort. You will also compete for market share on a broader scale rather than focusing just on local consumers. Further, because such marketing efforts are far more affordable than other marketing vehicles like radio and TV spots, print ads, and more, you will reduce your marketing expenses while enjoying higher sales. Small businesses today absolutely need to take advantage of this to thrive and grow.

How Long Does It Take?

Using small business coaching to learn how to best implement a cohesive and focused social media marketing campaign can take some time, but coaching will make it faster and easier for you to learn. You will find that you can start learning the ins and outs of one site first, such as Facebook, so you can get started marketing on one platform right away. Then, you can devote more time learning how to maximize the benefits from other sites and make a regular effort to expand your marketing strategy.

As you can see, small business coaching in today’s business environment is not a frivolous expense but rather a necessity that you need in place to grow, thrive, and compete in today’s marketplace. You will learn how to save money on your marketing expenses, how to save time on your marketing efforts, and how to expand your market share and boost sales, too!