Social Media – 5 Great Tips For Your Small Business

Social media…There is plenty of buzz around it but, you may be wondering  “What can it do for my business and more importantly, how can I utilise it in my business operations?”

Well the best way to start to explain why you should be focused on Social Media is with a story. Think back to the days of the wild west. Most of us are familiar with the old western movies where back in those days, towns had one general store, and the store owner knew everyone. People trusted him and knew what they were getting.

Enter the industrial age, and efficiency trumped personalization. People didn’t mind where they bought from, as long as goods were cheap.

Now, that mentality has changed. Consumers are once again reverting to a need for personalization from businesses large and small. The need has been rekindled by the Internet, and our ability to find anything we want, as well as a mistrust of advertising (think used cars salesmen).

We’ve reached a point where the consumer wants to know the store owner’s name and that he can be trusted. Small businesses must look beyond their want to grow into corporations, and instead focus on their core customers. Thanks to social media, we’re able to foster these relationships easily and quickly.

Top Tip 1: Blog or Social Hub

When most businesses begin a social media campaign, they tend to focus on Facebook, Twitter, and other social sites. They usually forget to incorporate their own site and tie their social profiles together. So our first big tip, is the creation of a blog or social hub. Why push your consumers to connect with you on other sites, but not give them a reason to visit yours?

Building and writing a blog may be time consuming, but it creates a way to connect with users on your own website. Additionally, creating useful content such as how-tos or industry insights can keep customers engaged.

For business owners that don’t have the resources to update their blog regularly or can’t think of what they’d write, I suggest building a “Connect” page. A connect page, or social hub, offers readers a way to find your business’ most active profiles and join you on those social sites. The page could also include a short bio or how you use each social site.

Giving consumers a reason to visit your site is extremely important. A blog or social hub can pull consumers to your site and into the sales funnel.

Top Tip 2: Local Social Networks

For local businesses with a storefront, sites like Qype and Yelp and can make a real impact. Qype.ie and the like, allows businesses to create listings with all the necessary information for a consumer to find you, while other customers can review and comment on your business. Many of these sites will let business owners “claim” their listings and add information, such as phone numbers, store hours, menus, etc.

Consumers use local social networks to find businesses, but also to get social proof when making a decision. They use comments and reviews to go with the “best” listing. Because of the demographic these sites target (people ready to make a decision) small businesses can see a great return from local social networks.

The other great thing about these sites is the SEO value attached to them. They can provide great backlinks to your main website and if you can build up reviews,  connected to your business profile on these sites, you will find that they can have a significant bearing on your standings in google maps, or now called “Google Places”.  In some market places reviews on these sites will determine if you are visible in the Google maps listing on page one of a search or buried in the background of the maps listing. Ignore this tip at your own peril.

Top Tip 3: Twitter

Everyone is talking about Twitter. So why is it a big win? Simple: it connects you with your consumers in real-time via the web, desktop applications, and even mobile. Finding a way to offer value while humanizing the business can lead to a stronger following and increased word of mouth marketing.

Soulplantation – This San Diego restaurant offers made from scratch soups and salads. The restaurant did well but it’s parent company, Garden Fresh, saw the potential of social networking and decided to dive in headfirst. They hired a social media specialist and began a very successful Twitter feed for the restaurant. The feed is used to play games with customers, such as trivia. Coupons and free meals are given out but only to the first respondant, thus driving up the desire for customers to take part. It’s also used to post recipes and other restaurant-specific information.  It has proven to be extremely successful, having racked up over 3,000 followers and contributed to a 5-10 percent increase in foot traffic in the restaurant. Twitter address:  Soulplantation

For more Twitter Success Stories you can check out this Blog article where the above story came ffrom…

With Twitter, business owners are able to cater to their consumer’s needs instantaneously. In a world where everything needs to be done yesterday, a quick response can create a lifelong customer.

Top Tip 4: Facebook Fan Page

You knew it was going to get a mention eventually and thats Facebook. No discussion on Social media would be complete without featuring this Social Media Giant. Creating a Fan Page is simple, but truly utilizing it to its fullest potential takes some guidance.

A Fan Page allows a business to visualize and build a community, similar to Twitter. However, unlike Twitter, you can add and customize a great deal more.

At the very least a business should update their Fan Page “status” to keep consumers informed and engaged. A more advanced technique would be to add things like coupons or Google (Google) maps directions to the storefront. These kind of resources give consumers a reason to visit your Facebook Fan Page and interact with the brand.

Top Tip 4: Custom Wiki

My final tip is to use a custom wiki, which takes advantage of a phenomenon called crowdsourcing. In other words, use your customers to give information to other consumers.

The easiest way to do this is by creating a wiki for your FAQ or Customer Service knowledge base. Let your consumers enter the problems they’ve had via a public forum (the wiki), and provide your responses publicly as well. Although showing problems may seem backwards, it’s a very effective way to retain customers and generate new sales.

Consumers aren’t stupid, they know that mistakes happen. Instead, they want to see that their questions will be answered quickly. Also, with a public wiki, customers can see if a concern has already been addressed, saving time for both you and the customer.

With minimal moderation, a wiki can build trust in your business and make your customer service more efficient.

Facebook Marketing 101 – Promoting Your Facebook Presence

After you’ve mastered the basics of Facebook and set up Facebook fan pages for your business, it’s time to promote your fan pages and identify ways to be found in real time search results.

Is customer loyalty important to you? Have you ever wondered about which sources provide loyal visitors who will repeatedly return to your site?

Chitika analyzed the browsing habits of 33 million unique visitors during September last year. They found that Facebook provides the most loyal visitors, with 20 percent of those who originate from the social network in turn visiting the site they landed on four or more times in a week. Other notable social media sites include Digg at 16 percent and Twitter at 11 percent.

This should help you feel better about the time you invest marketing on Facebook. Now let’s look at some ways to promote your Facebook fan page.

How to Promote your Facebook Page

A promotion is a good way to reach out to your customers and make them aware of your new Facebook page. Offer a discount or prize drawing for customers who become fans.

Let your fans know that you would like them to share their feedback on your products or services. Be prepared to receive this feedback, good or bad. This should be a given with any type of social media marketing strategy.

When your customers (or fans) interact with you on Facebook, their friends will see those comments on their news feed. This is one way to leverage the power of Facebook as a viral marketing tool. This should attract more fans and prospective customers.

Engagement and Conversation

Many people are fixated on the goal of acquiring new fans. You can’t ignore this metric because the more fans you have, the more successful your campaign is, right? Well, not exactly.

The real goal is to engage your fans in conversation. If you don’t communicate and converse with your fans, then your fan page will become dormant and fans will disperse to other interesting sites.

You must commit to spending time doing this. Set aside the time to read through comments and other posts from your fan base. Many businesses create a fan page with the mentality that “if you build it, they will come” and don’t invest the time to interact with their fans, a lost opportunity.

Facebook provides some great tools to help you engage with your fans. You have the ability to send videos, photos, messages, or links to each fan.

Each time you send out one of these communications, you show up on their personal newsfeed. This helps to keep you and your products or services top of mind with your fan base. Be careful not to “spam” them. Spread out your communication pushes and make them meaningful and relevant.

A cool feature of Facebook is that it also gives you the ability to segment your audience by region, age, and gender. This helps you send the right messages to the right demographic group. Learn who your audience is and plan your messaging strategy around those groups.

Facebook also provides a helpful reporting tool called Insights. This tool helps you understand the various types of content your fans enjoy interacting with.

Also, because you’re encouraging open and honest conversations, you might find that you occasionally get some objectionable posts. Facebook provides tools to help moderate and even block users. But you should plan on how to handle this ahead of time and communicate to your fans up front so they understand the policy.

Regardless, use these tools sparingly. If fans feel their comments are being edited or you’re watering down the Kool-Aid, then it’s less likely they will engage in future conversations.

Being Found in Real Time Search

One advantage to search marketers is that search engines are working with Facebook and Twitter to integrate updates into their search results. Getting found in real-time searches is another strategy for promoting your fan page. Let’s look at some useful tips that should help you show up in these real-time searches.

• Keywords: This is always the place to start. If you’re doing SEO or PPC, then you probably already have a good handle on your targeted keywords. If not, start with keyword research. Include your targeted keywords in your content, updates, and especially your titles. Make sure everyone who updates your Facebook page has a keyword list handy so they can use these keywords as much as possible.

• Research and converse about relevant and interesting content: Take time to “listen” to what people are talking about on your fan page and other sites. Then you can post content that will interest your fan base. Ask a question to spark a relevant and timely conversation. Discuss current events and news if these are relevant to you and your targeted keyword set.

• Many followers: More followers means it’s more likely your content will spread virally and be shared. This also helps generate more impressions of your content.

• Call to action: You might be surprised sometimes by the power of a simple invitation. Invite people to “act.” Ask people to share the content with others. Include buttons like “retweet” or “digg” that help them do this easily. Doing this gets you one click away from showing up on another site and being promoted for more viewers to see.

The principles discussed here can also be used for other social media sites. If you are new to Facebook marketing and would like to set up a fan page and begin using facebook as a marketing channel for your business then be suer to check out our Facebook Marketing Unleashed Training Program. Click the link to go there now.