Should we use social media for our business? “Ehhhhh, I’ve heard about it but I don’t have time, it doesn’t matter.”  This is a common answer and social media may not be for everyone but I really believe a strong majority of small-mid size companies can benefit if a well developed strategy is created, not to mention you can save some big marketing dollars!  But, before you can ever get to that point, how do you show it’s value?  Here’s a few tips for business on utilizing social media:

You need a game plan: Let’s face it, the web is big and there’s a lot of content out there.  What will make your social strategy work?  The best way to get the most out of social media is to plan out what your doing.  Most importantly, post highly valued content to a niche market.

Define some social media objectives: The more specific the better.

1. Increase customer engagement
2. Higher ROI
3. Better customer service
4. Stronger community
5. Brand awareness

Lay it out:

1. Do the step by step grunt work up front
2. Who in the company will represent your brand?
3. How often should we use social media: Hour by hour, every day, once a week?

Narrow your search: A local mom & pop can create a Twitter account and use www.search.twitter.com, type in keywords related to their business and start chatting! Find people who are interested in your service or product and follow them.  The easiest way is to just jump right in.  Here is a great article on everything Twitter.   But, if this is not enough, use http://search.twitter.com/advanced to narrow down your search based on geographic radius(15-50 miles), certain words, specific dates, or even attitudes! Yup, Twitter can measure attitudes.

Build your community! You can’t snap your fingers and have 15,000 people following your blog and 2,500 Twitter followers over night. It takes time, but what’s more important than numbers are relationships.  Who are you talking with, are you re-tweeting their stuff, do they know what you do? What value are you providing to your readers?  Twellow is a great resource to find people with similar interests, it’s basically a Twitter directory.

Where are your customers hanging out? Digg, Facebook, Blogs, Friendfeed, Delicious, Twitter?
In our previous post we touched on Twitter (B2B and creating relationships), Linked in( Recruiting and personal development) and Facebook (B2C and social, not yet seen as a B2B powerhouse but has potential). It would be impossible to act on every social platform, so choose wisely.  Develop a specific plan which provides value to a niche demographic, as Seth Godin say’s, “you can’t be everything to everyone.”

What’s your strategy? Give feedback and tips on your companies successes and failures!

Tags: Small Business, Social Media, strategy, tips, twitter

Posted by Bretton Jul.14, 2009@ 8:00 am

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 14th, 2009 at 8:00 am and is filed under Great Business, Social Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.