Most Helpful Social Networking Sites For Small Businesses
Do you own or work for a small business? Do you know that 75% of small businesses are intending to expand their social media budget as a crucial element of their marketing campaign for 2011 and 2012? Social media is the easiest way for firms to reach out to the masses and expand their online presence.
The largest struggle for small businesses is to spread the word about their services and brands. Coca cola and Starbucks weren’t always the stars that they are now. Starbucks especially spread by personal recommendation – and social media facilitates this spreading of info. (See which brands are best at creating the social media buzz.)
Nonetheless social media can also be a curse. It is hard to pick out the flowers from all the weeds. As a small business you actually need to distinguish yourself as a legitimate company with room to grow and expand to new audiences. These social media platforms are the best for you to grow your brand on the web.
Facebook: You “Like” Me, You Really “Like” Me
Recently, a publication stated that Audi (not a small business, but still not the biggest business in terms of loyal followers) had the most interactive Facebook page. They averaged about 200 “likes” for each post that they made.
A genius selling scheme or sheer luck? This definitely wasn’t due to luck 100% – Audi did come up with a way to have a great deal of fans on Facebook, but their articles was also extraordinarily interactive. They posted photos, videos and insider facts.
Making a Facebook page for your company and trying hard to get as many fans and “likes” on your posts as possible is a good way to expand your online presence. It is very important to post enough, but not too much (once or twice a day should do the trick). You don’t want to overwhelm your fans, rather give them insight about your company that they’re sure to “like.” A lot of small firms (like social media guru Ashton Kutcher’s company, Katalyst) use Facebook as their website (and nothing else).
Twitter: Tweet Your Way into People’s Hearts
Twitter is indisputably a good way for you to reach out to folk that you would not necessarily reach on Facebook. With twitter, people will be in a position to find your tweets more easily than your Facebook page. Tweet about topical things to your company, but focus also on other things in your industry. You don’t want your twitter page to portray an ego-centric company. Tweet once in awhile about important articles or things that you believe people in your niche will be interested in.
What’s a niche market? On twitter you usually want to build your audience or your niche before starting tweeting. You want to be well placed to maintain some sort of focus with your profile so that your fans will be more targeted and loyal. The only issue with twitter is that sometimes follower numbers will vary. Do not be deterred if you lose some followers – spam accounts or accounts that are only aiming to get supporters in exchange and do not care about what you’re tweeting are out there. If they unfollow you, it is no sweat off your back!
Blog: Keep Your Audience Updated
Does your company have a blog? Well it should. Keeping a blog is a great way to get people curious about your company. Make your small business ‘ site easily reached from your blog (to direct traffic) and position yourself as an expert in your trade.
Any blog entry that you write should keep in mind basic S.E.O rules and write articles about topics that folks will stumble upon in search engines as well as on your blog. It is vital to grow your presence in as many ways as practical. Making an established blog that people subscribe to will unquestionably expand your brand and drive traffic.
StumbleUpon: Stumble Yourself to a Wider Audience
I am a staunch believer in submitting all content to StumbleUpon. Not only is it another website that you can add your content and brand to, but also it’s a good way to open up your site and blog entries to a whole new array of people.
You tag your submissions to StumbleUpon so that folk can stumble their interests and with a little bit of luck come across your content. StumbleUpon can sometimes bring thousands of hits and thousands of loyal fans at a time! There isn’t a complete science to getting thousands of hits yet, but if people like what they see, they are likely to share it! Get one power stumbler to share your content and you’re ready to go.
Amy Turman writes about social media for Experts123.com. Her article “Most Useful Social Networking Sites for Small Businesses” was inspired by another article she wrote for the site. She has 4 years experience in managing social media for small businesses and smaller clients.
