How To Benefit From Social Media as a Small Business

Social media can be overwhelming to say the least.聽 At first glance you will find yourself getting a headache trying to understand the jargon, the platforms, while still finding time to answer your cell phone.聽 Social media when done correctly can be very effective, but when done wrong, it鈥檚 simply just a big waste of time.聽 Below we will outline how to utilize social media effectively as a small business without the headache and wasted time.

Social media is the technology and tools people use to communicate easily via the internet or with mobile phones.聽 The most popular social media platforms are built for quick messages and chat through services like Twitter and Facebook.聽 A blog on a website is considered social media because you are able to interact with people through a comments board after the article.聽聽 Customer review sites such as Yelp.com and bookmarking sites like Delicious.com offer specific interaction between fans to rate and promote their favorites.

Small business interaction with social media is an important way to dialogue with customers and show transparency and desire for customer care.聽聽 You can easily monitor trends and what people are saying about specific services or products.聽 If you were a towing company, you might want to watch Twitter for messages using the words, broken down. In an instant you can offer your services and show your concern to help out a situation.聽 You get a new customer and when they excitedly talk about your kindness to all of their Twitter fans, you become the hero of the day.

Simply monitor what people are saying on social sites.聽 To track what people are saying, set up a Google Alert on your company name, or use some Twitter platforms like Tweetdeck to give you real time notifications.

The number one waste of time on social media is spent promoting to the wrong audience.聽 Anyone can get 鈥渇ans鈥� on Facebook or a bunch of 鈥渇ollowers鈥� on twitter.聽 Ask yourself if they truly are you ideal audience.聽 If you market more to business owners, Linkedin might work better.聽 It offers you direct contact with specific positions inside of companies.

Find your audience and interact!聽 The key is getting involved.聽 Answer questions, ask questions鈥ffer opinions.聽 When you show you care, people will want to get involved.聽 Engaging your prospects in social media can build your credibility and reach more customers.

Whatever form of social media you choose, try to add to it on a regular basis.聽 New content brings visitors back and shows transparency to new visitors.聽 Keep up the positive buzz about who you are and what you offer.

Thu, Apr, 2011 @ 11:25 pm
Tags: facebook, google alert, linkedin, seo, Social Media, Twitter
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Internet marketing is most effective when it is promoted in multiple areas. 聽Most times we get so concerned about being found on Google (which is HUGE) that we forget the simples things of business. 聽 Help promote your online effort is some offline areas of your business. 聽Mashable.com did a great job coming up with the 5 best ways to do this.

1. When you run ads or specials, be sure to include some very useful online shortcuts…Web Address, Twitter, Facebook and maybe a quick link QR Code.
2. Make your business cards social media friendly. 聽Give your customers some more options to connect with you online. 聽 When someone adds you as a connection on Linkedin, you now have their info for a follow-up. 聽It is much less invasive than a hard sell phone follow-up.
3. Use your car bumper as a Twitter billboard. 聽As you a driving from appointment to appointment, let your twitter handle get promoted to future customers you are passing.
4. Host a blog party. 聽Take the time to invite other businesses you associate yourself with to host a blogging seminar where you all take the time to do business reviews and writeups on each other. 聽This is a great way to get more backlinks and get to tell a more meaningful story behind your business to others.
5. Get creative- Take some time to brainstorm on creative ways to draw attention to your online business. 聽Here are just a quick idea to get the ball rolling…Make T-shirts that have your twitter handle on the back, with a QR code leading to your flickr account page.

Mon, Nov, 2010 @ 12:13 am
Tags: 30 tips in 30 days, facebook, online business, QR, QR Codes, Twitter
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What is Twitter and why should you be using it? According to their website,聽 鈥淭witter is a real-time information network powered by people all around the world that lets you share and discover what鈥檚 happening now.鈥� Many people refer to Twitter as a micro-blogging platform because you can only put a limited amount of information into the text box to share with your followers. Twitter is also the fastest growing website in the world and help change the way communicate, market, and interact with the other people in our world. It has even made the world a little smaller metaphorically speaking because, Twitter is used by people in almost every country in the world because there is Twitter in French, Italian, German, Japanese, and Spanish. So what does this mean for you or your business? This means that you and your business should be on Twitter taking advantage of all the benefits that it offers. Here is a couple of lists that I have compiled explaining the benefits of using Twitter and how you can more effectively do it.

The first benefit that comes to my mind when I think about Twitter is that it鈥檚 a great place to do research. If you think you have a unique product, service, or business idea you can hope on Twitter and try and find people who are talking about that subject. For example if you type in 鈥減rincess dresses鈥� into the search button you will find people talking about Disney princess dress, homecoming princess dresses, and princess prom dresses. Its that easy just type anything in the search button and you can find out if people are tweeting about that certain subject. You can even start following companies that are competition to see that they are tweeting about. Basically you can spy on your competition and find out what they are up to. The next advantage of using Twitter is that you can emphasize and expand your brand.聽 It doesn鈥檛 matter if you a just a mom, a small business, or a huge organization you can take control of your brand and present that to the world. It can be changed on the fly and have the voice that you choose, and the great thing is that just because you aren鈥檛 a celebrity you can have just as much authority as anybody else. Twitter has done an amazing thing by leveling the playing field. Sure you can follow Ashton Kutcher, Britney Spears, or Darth Vader but they don鈥檛 have the kind of influence that industry leaders like Mashable and Guy Kawasaki. It鈥檚 up to you to expand and reinforce your brand and only your imagination can hold you back.

Tue, Sep, 2010 @ 12:27 am
Tags: internet marketing, Phoenix internet marketing, Social media marketing, Twitter, Twitter marketing
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