Youtube is for watching kittens fall down toilets, Facebook is for arranging a night out with friends and Pinterest?.well I haven?t even heard of that one yet! That would be the thoughts of most small business owners. The fact of the matter is that social media marketing for small business is an absolute must and if you don?t find the time to engage with your customers your competition will.
Set a schedule
You don?t have to post every day. What is important is that when you do post you post quality content that will get a reaction. And no, that doesn?t mean just posting to let people know you have 50% off Mon-Wed. Promotional content is ok as part of a varied mix of content, images, information about your industry, personal thoughts.
There are plenty of small businesses that post just once or a few times a week and they are still successful in engaging customers and building a community however you have to be careful not to loose traction with your audience.
Click here: To find out what the most common small business social media marketing pitfalls to avoid are?
Build a back catalogue of material.
Rather than sitting down each and every time you are to post and thinking of fresh content. Sit down for an allotted time each week and brainstorm a list of ideas that you could talk about. This will allow you to come up with material for several posts at a time, which you can then post a few days apart.
Link Your Accounts
If you are struggling to find the time to post to 3 different accounts then focus on just the one. Then link the other two profiles so that anything you post is circulated on all three. For example anything you posted on Facebook could be sent out on Twitter and likewise anything that you post on Twitter could be posted on your Facebook page.
Tip: If you are doing this then Twitter has a 140 character limit so remember if you post anything longer then it will be incomplete.
Use social media marketing for small business to provide customer service
Is there a pattern in the questions that you have answered about your business to existing or new customers? If so, use social media to answer them. If an existing customer asks about ?How can I do this or that?? Then direct them to your Facebook page where they will find the answer. Also tell them to like your page.
Don?t shy away from negative comments; use them as an opportunity to showcase your customer service excellence by working with the client to resolve the situation in an open book format. Other clients, potential clients will be impressed with the way that you helped the client.
Automate
Once you have a list of content you can schedule some of it to be posted at specific times of the day. You can use tool such as Timely for Twitter or Socialoomph.
A word to the wise, you don?t want to automate all of your social media presence as it is SOCIAL media after all. Take some time to access your chosen social media presence and have conversations with people. Be human.
Centralize your engagement
There are social media platform tools out there that allow you to centralize your social media accounts in one place, Hootsuite, and Tweetdeck are just two examples. These social media tools let you update, monitor, manage and maintain several social media platforms at once saving you precious time.
Have content come to you.
Set up Google alerts for specific topics related to your industry or niche. If you are run a dentist practice then set up an alert for ?teeth advice?, ?toothache? or ?healthy teeth? then take a minute to browse through the results and share some posts that you feel could add real value to your audience.
Social Media marketing as a business tool won?t be going away any time soon. Over the last few years, social media is becoming more and more prominent, both for businesses and consumers. Building , maintaining and running a social media presence is a must.
Yes, I know there are a million and one things you NEED to do as a business owner. Getting your brand online and being talked about is ONE of those things. So if you don?t have the time then make it because social media marketing for small business is hugely important and can really help business growth!
Click here to read Small Business Social Media Avoid at your Peril!
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