Social Media in Small Business - Making the Most of It
Social Media in Small Business - Making the Most of It
There's no doubt that social media is the fastest-growing marketing frontier in small business. According to the Small Business Success Index (SBSI) from the University of Maryland and Network Solutions, small businesses are embracing social media in a big way.
Their numbers show that 61% of small business owners are using social media to identify and track new customers, 75% have a company page on at least one social networking site, and 45% expect to see profits from social media this year.
Social media has vast potential for local, national, and international advertising. Most savvy small businesses are already tapping into that.
If you're new to this, though, you'll want to know how. Read on.
=== Facebook, Facebook, Facebook
The number one social media site and the most useful for most small businesses is Facebook. If your business deals with the general public, or both individual customers and other businesses, then Facebook is king. It's relatively easy to set up with, has over 300 million users worldwide, and is by far the most well-known of the social networking websites.
First and foremost, begin with a Fan Page for your business. Create your Page using your business name. If you don't have a personal Facebook account, you will probably want to set that up as well. Fan Pages are where Facebook users go to say they like something (a product, a company, etc.) and can leave (moderated) comments about them. It will also have other basic information such as a link to your company's website, any contact information you want to include, etc. Personal pages have a lot more information involved and can be used to promote as well, but aren't as easy to maintain or promote as are Fan Pages. Once you have your Fan Page ready to launch, put a link to it (a 'Fan' button) on your website.
Before you get really in-depth with your Facebook presence, though, you should search for and evaluate your competitors and their presence there. This will give you an idea of how they're using the site, what you can do to better use it yourself, etc.
=== LinkedIn
LinkedIn is business-oriented, so if your business primarily deals with other businesses, then this is the site to use. The site is made up of professionals and boasts 50 million users from 100 different countries.
Set up your LinkedIn profile for your business and, possibly, yourself. Make sure to link them together if you do both. Search for your clients and vendors on LinkedIn and 'friend' them. Then encourage those clients and vendors to give you a 'recommendation' on your profile. This builds credibility and begins networking your profile to others. Your clients may have friends who haven't heard of you, but will now see you as linked with their friend.
You'll find that for search engine results, a good LinkedIn profile often ranks higher than does a corporate website.
=== Other Sites
There are plenty of other sites, though their marketing potential is not as easily quantified. Twitter is the most common after Facebook, but it requires more work (time/effort) to use and has a larger learning curve in terms of marketing. It can pay off well, though.
Mobile social networks such as Gowalla and Foursquare are also becoming very popular. If your business is with consumers at a local level (rather than national or international), these sites may be something you'll find profit in.
Most businesses that utilize social media are using a variety of them together. Combining them is usually relatively easy and can make for consistent branding across multiple platforms, but it requires diligence and time. Many platforms such as Foursquare automatically integrate with Twitter and/or Facebook, effectively combining these two without much additional effort.
Explore the possibilities and see what seems to fit best with your business model. Whatever you do, get into it. Social media is fast becoming the 21st century's word of mouth advertising.
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