MN Interactive

Social Media Tips For Small Businesses

In a Small Business National Poll commissioned by the company, Employers, it was found that out of the 500 businesses which responded, 52% believed in the importance of an online presence. Yet it was only 16% which said they used social media to gain customers, and only 65% of those which actively campaigned with it.

These low numbers are indicative of the fact that most business owners will find the pace at which social media grows, intimidating. It’s also seen to be time consuming and unless used effectively, a waste of financial investment. Yet today, social media is transforming the landscape of the small business world, and has become in a lot of instances, indispensable. While a lot of its user base does comprise of young adults networking, it can be a highly refined resource that allows you to tap into your target markets, reel them in, and retain them.

If used correctly, social media can allow you to slash your marketing budget by a sizeable figure and build up your potential client base in a quicker and more efficient manner. Think of the success blogs, and sites like twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn have had. Because most of them are free to create and use, it does not however mean that it’s easy to gain a large client base simply by signing onto them. In fact, tapping into the right social media for your business can be quite challenging, so before you throw out your traditional marketing plans and replace them with an online presence, here are a few things you should know:

Start slow with a few easy to use sites: Use free online services such as twitter and Facebook to suss out your target audience and build up around this. Your messages should always offer value to your readers, even if they are short 140 character tweets. If you’re new to the social media scene, twitter is a great way to begin- just sign up an account and you’re ready to go. If you find it hard to tweet daily, use tools such as Tweet Later and twitterfeed which allow you to type in your messages for an automatic delayed relay. LinkedIn and Facebook require a greater time investment, but it’s well worth the effort, as both are more flexible and allow you greater interactive options.

Invest into your efforts: Along with the time you’ll be spending on these sites, it’s wise to consider investing some money, which you can pull out of your traditional print budgets. These can be used to buy targeted ads on the social media sites your audience frequents. However, as with print advertising, you will need to research the sites you select thoroughly. Do so by being a constant presence on them, responding to messages you receive, and contacting people you think might be interested in what you have to offer.

Check out the competition: Don’t know what to write on your blog? Not sure which e-newsletter provider works best? It’s time to play detective. Start with typing in the keywords and phrases people will use to find your services into a search engine like Google and Yahoo. Select the top names which appear, and go through their sites. Find out what they do to attract their audience, and try and emulate them. It’s no point reinventing the wheel when it already works perfectly fine. You can always put your own stamp on your site, in fact, you should. But the basics can be adapted from existing leaders.

Be interesting and to the point: The most viewed sites are the ones which have something interesting to say. It could be funny, intellectual or even rude, but it should appeal to your audience. Take the site WebMD. It’s is one of the most popular sites when it comes to health care. The content in it is informational, with little humor. But visitors who come here are looking for facts, not laughs, which is precisely what the site offers. Your profile and content should be more than just about you. If you can’t find anything to write about, don’t hesitate to use sources like YouTube to source interesting videos for your blog..

However, the above won’t work unless you are consistent in your efforts. There’s nothing worse than having customers come back to your blog two weeks after their initial visit, to find no new content. A lot of social media sites will allow you to store content and use it later- take advantage of these features to build up content storage and ensure you reach your customers on a regular basis.