If you are starting a new business, you need to have a solid business plan and a strategy for marketing your new business. One of the best ways to market your new business is using social media. Not only is it free marketing, it is a booming trend on the Internet that needs to be utilized. Use the tips in this article to help you get started on your social media marketing plan for your new business.

Users can update their location through their mobile phones with Facebook Places. Put up a Facebook account for your business, then encourage people to "like" your page. If they can prove that they did, give them a discount when they buy something from you. Foursquare has a feature that's similar and that you should try.

Post informative content and accurate answers to questions to reveal yourself as an expert. Because you want to be thought of as a niche expert, you should not post shaky opinions or advice. While humor is okay, keep your content tasteful to a world-wide audience. Use these things to create a profitable and dynamic profile for SMM.

Make it easy for your website's visitors to follow you on social media sites. People are practically addicted to these social media sites. Many will check in multiple times daily and this gives them instant access to your business!

Holding events such as a photo contest that relate to your business is a wonderful way to involve your followers in your social media marketing campaign. Tell users that you will offer a prize for the most creative photo with your brand included. You can gain valuable exposure along the social network as the people who submit their pictures share them across the network with others who may not have heard of your product.

Update your Twitter regularly so that your followers actually get a chance to see your post before it gets pushed further down their page. Twitter is concerned with volume, so you have to post a lot. Making your posts short will allow you to get a couple good updates from a single event.

Do not post raving about your product constantly. Vary how you communicate with your followers - blog posts, for example, are great, but don't rely on them exclusively.

Gain exposure by promoting your business through games on Facebook. Try to come up with an idea for creating a game that is associated with your business, product, or service. Some large and well know commercial brands have bee quite successful in using this strategy to produce games of viral proportions. In fact, it can easily be worth your money to hire a professional to produce a high-quality Facebook game for you.

If potential buyers follow your business on Twitter, reciprocate in kind. This helps your customers to see you as a real person, and it lets them know that you respect them as an individual too. Your customers and friends want to feel like you are paying attention to them and that you care. When you follow back from your Twitter account, people will have more confidence in your site, and it takes just a moment to do.

If you want optimal results from your marketing through social media, find the demographic information available about your page users and then use that data. If you find that a lot of individuals are clicking your advertisements that belong to a particular demographic group, you could tailor your advertisements to entice them a lot more effectively.

Make sure to include some content that is funny or lighthearted. Anything that provides humor has a better chance of being shared between friends and family members. This is a really easy way to get exposure.

Keep in mind the experience of others who have gone before. Use what you learned to improve your techniques going forward, so you have a better chance of success. If you do this, you'll have it in your mind as to what works great and what isn't going to work at all when you're facing the web once again.

If you need ideas for setting up your Facebook page, check out your competitors' pages. What are they doing well, and what does not seem to work? Your competition's pages can inspire you in terms of your page by showing you best and worst practices. Make your page unique and appealing.

For more marketing exposure, use LinkedIn in conjunction with your blog. Just post a share button at the top or bottom of your main blog page, as well as to every individual blog. People can then call attention to your blog for you by sharing with others on their site. Considering this site has around 100 million users, the possibilities are impressive.

Apply the tips from this article to assist you with developing the fundamentals of your business, through social media marketing. It may seem a bit overwhelming now; however, once you get your feet wet, you will accomplish it with ease.