If your small business doesn’t have a social media presence, you may be missing out on building brand loyalty with your customers and attracting new ones! Social media is a great way to build and establish your brand, allowing you to directly reach out to and interact with your target market.
But which social media site should you use? Here are some tips to help you get started:
With 1.1 billion users, it’s hard to ignore Facebook. There’s a greater chance that your customers are on it, than on any other social media platform.
To get your business in front of Facebook users, you’ll need to create a page for your business, and get people to like it. To attract more likes, you can purchase Facebook ads, customize the content and choose the audience you want to reach, based on their location, age, gender or interests.
Foursquare
This location-based social network is best for businesses that are on the move, such as a food truck or if you’re selling a product in different locations. For example, a brand of alcohol can check in at a restaurant or bar that serves its products. Foursquare helps your customers keep track of where your product is being sold and allows you to keep them up to date on the latest events you’re planning.
The photo-sharing service works best with businesses that have a visual element. For example, a clothing store can post pictures of its latest styles or a salon can post images of their recent works. Photos can be easily shared from Instagram to other social media networks, such as Twitter and Facebook.
LinkedIn isn’t just for jobseekers. Small business owners should create a company page on the online professional networking service, says LinkedIn career expert Nicole Williams. You can add contact info, products and other information about your business to the company page.
With over 200 million users, Twitter has an incredible following. Businesses can follow people or companies they think will be interested their business. Businesses can also use the site to deal with customer complaints, or to thank people who say good things.
The pinboard-style photo-sharing website is popular with businesses that have a visual element. The key here is to be authentic and share photos that users want to see, rather than just an advertisement for your business. For example, a restaurant can offer a photo and recipe for a new dish.
Yelp
If you own a restaurant, bar, clothing store or many other kinds of businesses, Yelp users have likely created a page for it already.
A negative review on Yelp can hurt a business as other customers may see it and stay away. Business owners need to monitor their Yelp pages and respond if an upset customer writes something on it. How you respond says a lot more about you than the complaint so remember to be nice and helpful. Don’t be afraid to ask for positive Yelp reviews offline either. For example, management can train restaurant servers to ask customers to review the place on Yelp or you can add a line on your receipts asking for Yelp reviews.
If you’re interested in learning more about social media and ways your small business can implement an effective social media campaign, CMarie Consulting is here to help!
cmarieconsult.wordpress.com 