11 Social Media Marketing Tips for Small Business

Social media marketing is an exploding medium for small business.  The problem is some companies get it, others don’t.  Here are 11 social media tips to get you started on this awesome, new marketing playing field.

1)      Consistency in usernames. Use the same username across all social media channels to help build credibility to your name and business.

2)      Talk to your fans. Respond to these users in a timely manner – no matter the nature of their comment.

3)      Interact with your audience. Social media is about community and discussion.  Don’t speak “at” your followers, engage them in conversation.  Ask questions.

4)      Start a blog. Blogs are great, they don’t require much time and energy (one post a week is good place to start), they are great for SEO purposes and allow you to interact with your customers.

5)      Don’t let it die. The hardest part about social media is the time commitment.  The worst thing you can do is leave it to die.  There are a host of tools you can use to simplify the process – and ensure you’re connected no matter where you are.  Use them.

6)      Research your competition. Then, research the social media leaders in your area of expertise. Here’s a link to the Top 5 Small Business Blogs out there.

7)      Track your traffic.  What blog posts are generating the most traffic? Make similarly themed posts.  What types of social media questions get the most responses? Make similar questions. There are a host of tools to track your traffic – Google Analytics is a start.

8)      Integrate social media into your website and blog.  Add plug-ins for social media sharing ability, ensure comments are enabled.  On the other side, share your blog posts on your social media profiles.

9)    Change-up the perspectives – most companies have only one designated PR person.  This can become boring from a readers perspective.  Invite your staff to write articles, and try to have your CEO or VP write some as well.

10) Start advertising – social media advertising is hyper-targeted and ridiculously cheap compared to traditional marketing methods.  If you actively involved on social media, send targeted traffic to your fan pages to build your fan base.

11) Run a contest – Take some time to develop a contest your fans will like – or better yet, ask them for their opinion for prizes.  Keep in mind the best contests have an element of engagement added to them.  A custom built page using FBML will also help turn any traffic sent via social media marketing ads into new leads and fans.