Organizational Uses: Social Media Tips for Small Businesses

Having a Guide to the Social Media Jungle

Small businesses sometimes need a guide when it comes to the social media jungle. I found this article where it highlights eight social media tips to help small businesses grow. I’m not an entrepreneur or anything, but someday I hope I can help revamp social media sights for a small or large business. These tips are great not only for businesses but for any organization (even when marketing ourselves!).

1.     Show the “real you”

It’s good to put up tips or link to a new blog post but companies and professionals at times will want to see the real you. What can you bring to our business or better yet, this world? Also including thought provoking questions like, “How can we encourage America to become more social media savvy?” help to show your thoughts.

2.     Pick one thing and do it really well

I don’t know if I completely agree with this because the whole point of social media is to market and use all sources possible for information. They brought up a good point when they said prioritizing resources towards activities that deliver the most impact is smart (for example Follower wonk). When you find what network has concentration of target audience, you can focus more on what networks need more attention.

3.     Turn Facebook page into a lead-generating machine

Collecting names and e-mails to communicate with an ideal audience on a regular basis puts your business out there. In fact, without a list of qualified leads, you don’t have a business. This list can grow through marketing moves on Facebook (iFrames) and other networks.

4.     Invest in a great twitter design

There are plenty of people or businesses I have found and follow on Twitter because of their great design. The fact that they invested the time to create one shows they mean serious business (no pun intended). One way they suggested how to market your Twitter account is through following Twitter ads that market to your niche. Many will click to confirm and be directed to your page. If they are interested, they will follow back. One company (@HungerGamesPod) searched a basic @TheHungerGames ID and added over 4,000 followers to his account in less than a month by doing so.

5.     Bring company onto video

Adding short videos is one of the number one ways to get to the top of search results. Customizing channels on you tube adds credibility and increases the chance of viewers continuing on to the website. When humor and graphics are involved, views will increase, as well as when it’s three minutes or less. The shorter, the better.  

6.     Master video marketing

Learning how video content can increase exposure in search results is key (through proper tags, titles and publishing). Video thumbnails have higher attraction than just text. Video can also highlight a company’s personality.

7.     Monitor your clients and prospects

Showing clients you are interested in them can be done through creating alerts and adding their blogs, creating a twitter list and also adding a tweetdeck. Adding social connections and monitoring what clients say and do in social networks helps to serve their needs and build relationships faster.

8.     Give away the secret sauce

When content is displayed on how-top tips and industry secrets, it creates content that solves customers’ problems. It’s a competitive advantage where content will rise in search rankings and be shared through many networks with your business title as tagged.

I thought these tips were all really smart and presented ideas I had never thought about. When you look at successful businesses, make sure to look at their social media. It’s a rare occasion when successful businesses will have only a few networks.

Source: 8 Small Business Social Media Tips