Many big corporations are already in the social media bandwagon and we can’t say different for small business and entrepreneurs as well.
Hmm… but with limited resources, how should entrepreneurs engage in this time consuming but very much needed marketing strategy?
Fret not! We have come up with simple steps for you to follow. It doesn’t guarantee you success but it sure helps keep you on the right track. The aim is to Keep It Short and Sweet!
I’ll be explaining each recommended tool and wrap up with a simple map for easy digestion.
1. You Need A Blog
Why is it important?
A blog is very important if you want to bring your business online. Here’s why:
- Each blog post will reveal on a more intimate level what your business is to your customers
- It helps you deliver news more informally
- Whenever you write something helpful, it builds your online credentials
- It provides you with the channel to communicate with the rest of the world
- It helps you build your online presence
What should I write?
Well, most entrepreneurs don’t have much time. We don’t expect you to write long articles (like this one) all the time. Short news, tips or just sharing something interesting are often good enough, best accompanied by visuals!
The most important point to remember when writing blog content is to be relevant to your company or product.
Posting about your company happenings and gossips is a great way to keep your brand personal. It tells your customers that your company is fun and your workers are happy. Now, who doesn’t like to be with someone cheerful by nature. If your company can reflect a persona that customers are attracted to, you are likely to gain their loyalty.
But all fun and no substance might turn readers off too. You can’t establish credentials by posting all the “fun and hurray” stuff. It is important to value-add your customers by either solving their problems or improving their knowledge about certain things.
For example, if you’re in the educational business, you may want to give a tip or two on effective learning. Additionally, news articles like “CAUTION: Twitter & YouTube Can Harm Your Brain” will very likely be appreciated by your readers (Remember to quote the source!).
A blog post can be as short as this. Check out how Zappos did it.
Blog + Company Website?
For a company blog, it is recommended to have it hosted under your company’s domain name. When visitors visit your blog, there is a chance that they would also browse through your product offers and vice versa. Linking your corporate website and blog together will drive up your web traffic ranking and make it search engine friendly.
Note: No one is a born blogger and you’ll bound to make mistakes along the way. Like how you build your business, a blog takes time to show its effectiveness.
2. Use Facebook, Twitter or Both?
You use what your current and potential consumers are using. Don’t listen to the hype. So what if Facebook has 300 million users when your target audiences are on Twitter instead. To pick the social media suitable for your business, you first have to understand where your customers are online. An obvious cue will be to check if a big proportion of your customers are connected to your personal Facebook or Twitter profile. Likewise, you can also check based on geographical, age and gender via Facebook social statistic. (We have a post on it.)
For Twitter, making use of the real time search engine will be the best way to check if there is a market. Observe what’s being tweeted and you should be able to assess if there is a market and also check for competitors on Twitter.
With Facebook and Twitter monopolizing the social media industry, it is natural for them to become the common tools for most businesses. Don’t put yourself under the pressure of using both. Use them if you are able to handle multiple accounts or just pick one that is suitable for your business. It is better to have one that is active and well managed than having two with inconsistent messages.
Note: There are other social media sites out there preferred by different users in different geographical locations. Don’t limit your considerations to Facebook and Twitter.
3. Should I Create Videos?
Creating a video requires quite some experience and planning. Unless you’re a seasoned movie maker, creating a video requires more time than you would probably imagine. But if you’re confident to create a good one, the rewards are unlimited. A picture speaks a thousand words but a video speaks a million.
Whether it is a product demonstration or to show off your creative work environment, a video would do a better job than a picture. Don’t forget to upload them to YouTube! It makes your video easily embeddable everywhere and also helps expose it to thousands of YouTubers.
Here’s a simple but great video created by a learning center business, featuring a hamburger eating competition for kids.
4. Bookmark Your Post
Don’t limit your great blog posts or articles to your company website and blog. Share them with the world through social bookmarking! Here are some sites to start with:
- Digg
- Delicious
- StumbleUpon
- Reddit
- Twine
Why bookmark?
Bookmarking your posts to the above sites helps expose your blog to a wider audience. What’s more, these people are ready to give you their honest opinions. (Digg it if it is good and bury it if it is bad!)
You can find out more about social bookmarking here.
5. Measuring & Improving
It is important to utilize web analytics to track your website performance. It informs you of your audience’s favorite posts and gives you hints to areas that need improvement. You can also see where your traffic is coming from, which is essential to measure each social media effectiveness.
6. Summary: Putting Everything Together
Blog: Speak to the rest of the world. Regular short posts with visuals are cool enough. Related news articles about your industry will add value to your readers. Add in your own insights and views if possible for originality.
Twitter: Random babbling helps to make you more approachable. Don’t act like a robot. Humanize your brand and socialize with your followers (5 tweets is the rough limit for official updates only).
Facebook: Unlike Twitter, babbling via a Facebook page seems inappropriate. Let it be professionally casual. But then again, it is your call to create the brand persona that your customers are attracted to.
YouTube: Create a video only when you have the time. Embedding other people’s videos seems to be a more efficient choice.
Social Bookmarking: Submit your content only if you think it is worthy.
If you’re focused on doing it right, you would probably spend up to an hour a day updating various sites. Keeping it short and sweet still requires you to update your social media tools regularly. Catch our social media best practices to learn more.
