Social marketing has become a big buzz word in the world of marketing and for good reason. Social marketing allows you to interact with your customers using a dialogue of speaking with your customers rather than speaking to them. Your customers can interact with you and further share the dialogue with their friends.
There are some easy and free ways to start marketing your company via social media. They include Facebook, Twitter and Blogging.

Facebook:

As a company, you can set up a Facebook Fan Page for your business. We recommend a fan page versus a personal Facebook profile as it helps maintain a brand identity for your business while keeping personal items out.
To set up a Facebook Fan Page:

1. Go to Facebook.com
2. Below the Sign Up form on the right click the link for “Create a Page for a celebrity, band or business.”
3. Select your category, name your page and enter the security code.
4. Click “Create Page” (You will be asked to login with your Facebook account or to create an account)
5. Success! You have a Facebook Page!

Now you must customize your page using the tabs at the top (Wall, Info, Photos, etc). Update your profile picture with your company logo and start promoting specials and upcoming events. Most importantly, invite your existing prospect and customers to become a fan and start promoting your page in place like your e-newsletter, website and email signature.
To upload a list of your existing database:

1. Click “Find Friends” in the lower right.
2. Click “Upload Contact File”
3. Browse to locate your contact file (a spreadsheet works best) and click “Find Friends”.
4. This will locate people who area already on Facebook and invite them to become a fan of your page.

Friend Jeff Wolfe and become of fan of groSolar.

Twitter:

Twitter is a resource that allows you to send short messages (140 characters) to friends, family and coworkers to keep them up to date with what you are doing. Recently, Twitter has become very popular with marketers and can be used to link to articles, promote events and encourage a dialogue between you and your customers.
To set up a Twitter account:

1. Go to Twitter.com and click “Sign Up Now”
2. Complete the form and click “Create my account”
3. Now you have an account and can start Tweeting! Let the world know what you are up to

Promote your Twitter account in places like your e-newsletter, website and email signature.

Follow Jeff Wolfe on Twitter.

Blog:

Blogs are very useful for posting things to encourage a conversation. A blog is made up of Posts which help to encourage a dialogue with your customers. Another benefit is that there is no limit to the length of your post like Twitter and you do not have to have an account to view someone’s blog like Facebook. Blogs can also be linked directly on your website. There are a few online services that will host blogs for you. We recommend Wordpress for its ease of use and ability to categorize your posts.
To set up a Wordpress Blog:

1. Go to Wordpress.com and click “Sign Up Now”
2. Complete the form and click “Next”
3. Click Signup
4. Wordpress will send you an email to activate your blog while you complete your profile information.
5. Activate your blog and login.
6. You will be brought to your Dashboard where you can create a new post, create pages and change your settings.

As with all social media, promote your blog in places like your e-newsletter, email signature and link to your blog from your website.

Check out the groSolar blog here.