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Small Businesses – An introduction to social media for business
Posted October 26th, 2010 by Ben Fox. No Comments
You will certainly have heard all the hype about social media and we can’t go far without hearing about Facebook and Twitter these days. But how should a small business embrace it? What considerations are there?
For small businesses the use of social media for promotional purposes can be hugely beneficial, all it takes is some time, effort and dedication.
Here are 8 tips for getting started using social media to promote your business;
- Get to know what’s out there – Read-up on what social media channels are available – get to know the differences between Twitter, Facebook, A blog, Youtube…
- Choose the right media – Not every social media channel will be right for your business – Are you an Accountant? – If so LinkedIn & Twitter are perfect, own a Bar or Restaurant? Then Facebook is ideal for you, it’s important to understand the differences between each media and choose the right channel for your business.
- Promote your social media profiles on everything – you need to create an audience for your Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc – make sure you include your profile details on all communications including email footers, business cards, posters, flyers… make it easy for people to find you online.
- Give people reasons to follow you – people won’t follow you on Twitter, or ‘Like’ you on Facebook without good reason. Give discounts for those who engage with you online, hold Facebook competitions, share funny clips, hints, tips or links to interesting (and relevant) articles.
- Be consistent – Social media needs to be continuous. You will not create and maintain an audience if you start and stop social media activity. Choose set times of the day to post online, respond to fans and followers and to have conversations on social media. Your audience will come to recognise when you will be online.
- Cheat – There are plenty of tools available to make social media marketing easier and less time consuming. Tools such as Hootsuite and Tweetdeck allow you to post to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social media at the same time as well as allowing you to monitor your audience. Other tools including Tweetlater allow you to pre-programme updates so you can set everything going in the morning and your accounts will automatically update throughout the day.
- Measure and Evaluate – It’s not just the amount of followers and fans that are important, it’s who they are. Remember, you may have 100 followers, but ten of them may be loyal customers who spread the word about your great service or product. It’s also about the conversations and the interaction. Take time to regularly assess your campaigns, what’s created a buzz and what hasn’t. You’ll then have a better idea of giving your customers what they want.
- Have fun – It will show and if you’re having fun then your audience will too. Remember social media is just about people having conversations, so be nice, share things, remember that all fans and followers are potential customers and have fun with it.
© Fox Communications 2001 - 2011