I am a novice when it comes to marketing via social media. Help!

I am a novice when it comes to e-marketing, and as a 40+ male I often feel as though I am lagging behind; even my 10 year old son is showing me tricks!

We would like to use Twitter, Facebook etc to boost our brand awareness – how do we do it through these tools? Can you recommend a book, resource or training course that will set me on the right path?

The good news is that you haven’t been left behind! The rise of social media has been so rapid in recent times that even the most savvy have to continually have their finger on the digital pulse to keep up.

Sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn have soared in popularity as they have taught companies how to leverage social media for business purposes.

It is important to bear in mind that most people don’t seek products to buy on Facebook or Twitter. When using social media, consider it a way to connect and converse with people in order to build your brand (awareness), and extend your customer service. It’s the digital equivalent to networking.

I did some quick research into your business. Your baby-settling program has an obvious audience; new parents. This audience also happens to be one of the most active online.

The first step is to pinpoint where to find them. There are some fantastic digital resources for new parents that would be perfect communication platforms.

Go to Joongel and search under the “Family” category – almost all of the sites that come up have an online community, blog, or forum. You should be in these areas providing advice or looking for consumers who might already be promoting you.

One of the most powerful things you could do would be to connect with existing customers (thanking them for their support) and turning them into advocates, rather than pumping out offers to the general online community.

You should also check out Twibs, an online business directory within Twitter. You can list your business or product within the directory and gain access to millions of eyeballs. Twitter had seven million unique visitors last month. Interestingly 62% of those people used Twitter for work purposes.

You can also set up a Twitter account for your business, but I would only suggest you do this if you have information to tell your audience.
Become a spokesperson in your business area and the people will follow. Provide people with tools that go beyond your product but complement it.

For example, create a directory of popular baby names for people to search; build a pregnancy widget that counts down the days and gives hints, tips and advice for each day, and create your own forum or blog with parenting advice.

We have carried out a similar exercise for Blackmores by creating a Pregnancy Companion to support their pregnancy range.

There are endless ways can you reach your audience online and through social media. To get a better understanding of how you can best use these online tools, I would recommend reading the original social media bible The Cluetrain Manifesto. It’s slightly dated now, but still an excellent resource.

To gain insight into how you could further use the Facebook page you have created, I would also recommend reading The Facebook Marketing Bible.

You should also be considering other online marketing opportunities; specifically search. A quick look on Google AdWords shows me that last year in Australia there were 7.5 million searches for the word “baby”. More specifically, there were approximately 20,000 searches for the term “baby sleep” and 50,000 for “baby care”.

Other areas that could be utilised are targeted email communications and online advertising. If you are interested in hearing more about these areas, please get in touch.