posted by Jovell on blogging, online content, small business marketing, writing

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Have you updated your marketing plans for 2013 already?

Or are you still planning to update your strategies during these early days of the new year?

At the start of every year, it’s advisable for businesses of all kinds to look into the ways they have applied to increasing their businesses’ exposure both online and offline. This is an integral part of business plans which should be prioritized each year, some say even before every year ends.

For online tactics, there are many predictions about the changes that internet marketing will face this 2013. Many websites have already made several resources available for these online trend developments as well.

But what remains to be constant is the fact that 2 kinds of websites are still considered as the best tools for increasing a business’ web presence.

These are social bookmarking sites and social media sites.

The best thing about these sites is most of them are free. And all you need to have is an account in these sites and high quality online content to share in them.

But why are social bookmarking and social media sites still so “in” these days?

The primary reason is because these 2 sites allow engagement for all kinds of people.

Readers want engagement. They want to be involved, to get their voices out.And these so-called social sites allow them to do all these.

One example is Pinterest. It is one social media site which has seen a great amount of growth last year.

Pinterest came down to this success because people got attracted to images and videos which they can “re-pin” or share with others and wherein they can also add their own insights to the re-pinned item via comments or the description box when re-pinning.

Simply put, Pinterest got them involved.

Same goes with Facebook, Google Plus, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

As a business, when you use these social sites, you get a good mix of both active and passive marketing.

Your active marketing is reflected in the real-time engagement you get to have with your current and potential customers. You also get to know these buyers – their wants, needs and issues – better and where your brand comes in on their lives.

The passive marketing part kicks in when your website still generates leads and builds your online identity while you sleep. This is via your social media pages and the links going back to your business website via the social bookmarking sites.

But the key to get and keep social media fans is high, quality content.

Before you can reach out to your prospect customers…

Before you can engage with them…

Before you can convince them to believe in what you offer…

You have to have something to share.

With this in mind, you can now carefully plan out what’s best to implement or change in your business marketing tactics.

Answer key questions like what kind of content will you share in these sites?

Will you focus on blog posts? Images with quotes? Videos? Podcasts? Ebooks? White paper? Case studies?

All of the above?

Or a mix of some?

Today’s marketing is all about getting your business known as one who cares enough to share useful information for FREE!

Remember this at the start of this new year for your business and crop your marketing plans based on it.

If it looks like a lot of work, don’t hesitate to ask for help.

What’s your business plan now? Share them in the comments.

photo credit: Kaptain Kobold

Tags: online content, small business marketing, Writing