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One of the biggest questions people have about social media is how it should be used for small business. Even more to the point, if you are using social media, is it good for your business?
This topic came up during a recent interview for a magazine article on social media and small business. In the interview, I was asked to provide a concise listing of the benefits of social media for small business. I liked my response, and wanted to share some of my ideas with you here.
Even though social media is quite new, I believe it is more than a fad. It is, actually, a key disruptor of traditional marketing and advertising, and the disruption is going to get worse.
Even though the main social media sites are growing, there is still some confusion about how best to take part in the social media space.
The biggest mistake people make is focusing solely on Twitter and Facebook and thinking these comprise the full spectrum of your social media involvement.
If you want to get more out of your social media efforts, here are five ideas that can help:
1. Every business needs an intelligent social media strategy
Intelligent social media strategy means a strategy which links business objectives to social media marketing goals. It also refers to the idea that your social media toolset should be aligned with the outcomes you seek. While it’s easy to get seduced by having hundreds of friends on Facebook, if none of them represent your business target market or target group, your results won’t be that positive. I want to stress that it is not about your popularity. It is about profitable popularity if you are using social media for business.
2. Build your strategy first, and then select your tools.
I referenced this on an earlier post on social media strategy, but want to bring this up again. Don’t get started on the social media sites until you’ve outlined your goals and set up metrics to measure your outcomes. Skip this step, and you risk wasting a lot of time and resources for little return. Monitor your return at least once a month, so you know if your effort is worth it for your business.
3. Use social media to reduce lead generation costs.
One of the best ways to use social media for small business is to take advantage of the ease of content syndication, and share your content and information as widely and generously as possible. Create multiple marketing touchpoints so that you can create top of mind awareness. You want to build your own community of raving fans and be their first choice of provider when they need what you sell.
4. Right-size your social media approach.
I want to devote another blog post to this topic, but let me mention it here. The concept of “right sizing” your social media approach means that you invest in social media at the level commensurate to the business you can actually deliver on. This means, if you are a local business with just one location, and you can’t deliver services or products outside of your immediate location (whether due to costs, licensing, etc.), you do not need as large or as robust a social media strategy as a company with multiple locations which can fulfill orders nationally or internationally. Don’t be seduced into spending a lot on broad based social media efforts if you don’t have a business model which can profit from it.
5. Use social media to drive branding and awareness.
One of the best ways to use social media is as a method to “get your business on the map” – which means, essentially, that you use it to raise awareness of your business and what you offer. You do this primarily by sharing what interests you, and by using a soft selling approach. You share content and information which engages, informs, and inspires, and then make an offer of how a person can learn more. For those selling services, you are best served to use social media as a step one lead generation tool, and still expect that people won’t purchase until they have a chance to know you better. For a lower investment product, you may be able to convert them more easily. You can use social media to drive social proof, which can also shorten your sales cycle or convince people they should do business with you.
By understanding your own business goals for social media, and approaching this like any other form of marketing, you will position your business for profit.
How about you? What have you found to be most helpful about using social media for your business? Please join the conversation by commenting below.
If you want to access my 21 lesson e-course on building influence in social media, get that here: Build Influence eCourse
Rachna Jain is the amazingly energetic entrepreneur driving
Social Media Marketing Strategies,
where you will find in-depth discussion of the latest technology
and techniques in social media marketing.
Rachna, I’m really liking this audio. Dave Thackeray has been after me to do more audio, I think he’s probably right!
Dave Doolin´s last post ..Get ahead with Headway theme for WordPress
And it would be even better if the audios could be downloaded as mp3s. I’m one of those people who does a lot of learning by listening when I’m driving.
Potential downside: people download the audio, don’t leave a comment here, and don’t ever get around to listening to the audio.
I really like Rachna’s voice. She sounds, friendly, smart, and sincere, and that definitely helps to build rapport and trust.
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John,
Thanks for your feedback. I agree that the audios might be useful if they could be downloaded. The only thing I wonder, and I’d be curious about your feedback- do you like downloading audios even if they are really short? Like this one is maybe 5 minutes max. I understand about the value of downloading longer audios- do you still find value in downloading shorter ones?
Dave,
Thanks, glad you like it. Dave Thackeray is definitely a huge proponent of audio. Luckily I started using it *just* before he was going to bug me about it. :)
Social media is being used effectively by several local coffee shops. Coffee shops tend to be community oriented by nature, so they tend to attract a large, loyal, local following quite quickly on Facebook. This makes it easy to advertise specials for the week, give discounts to fans, and ask for input on new products. It’s a cost effective way of targeting paying customers and reaching some new ones too through ‘shares’ and ‘likes.’
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Jean,
Thanks for your comments- you’re absolutely right on. Bars/nightclubs are also using social media very well, I’ve found.
Rachna, I live in a very rural part of the country near Mount Shasta in far northern California. There are several businesses that I know of that are using Facebook with great effectiveness. I think it especially works well in small-town areas where just about everybody knows everybody else.
John Soares´s last post ..Blog World Expo in Las Vegas- My Unanswered Questions
John,
That’s an interesting point. Do you think it’s because residents of smaller towns are naturally more interested in what their fellow residents are doing? I do admit to being more interested in the Facebook threads of people I know well or have met in real life.
Rachna,
I’m doing this social media thing in ready, fire, aim mode. It isn’t very satisfying and isn’t very productive. Getting my business plan in order before spending too much of my time on SM is probably a better plan.
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Ralph,
Thank you for your comments. If it makes you feel any better, many people are doing social media in the way you described. But I think taking a step back and considering your strategy can help you tie actions to outcomes, and help you gauge how much time you *really* need to spend in social media to get the results you want.
social media can really work wonders with ur business and creating a lens can also help with some audio video clips..
That’s definitely true- using the wide spectrum of social media sites (not just the social networks) makes the most sense. Thanks for commenting.
i think social media will always work for small or big business. but still you must know where to place it. i sold quite a lot of computer parts because of some national forum..
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Rainer,
Yes, like anything, if you use it correctly, it will work. Congratulations on your sales success!
Useful article
I like your approach
Many people dive in without much of a plan (me included) and it’s good to be reminded that you need to think a bit before you act!!
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Dan,
Yes, it’s like that old saying, “look before you leap!” :) Thanks for commenting.
Rachna, great article from you! Still i would say that from blogging to social networking sites, everything is necessary for small business owners!
There are many cases when people love to travel distance to visit your shop or office just because they know you are reputed and do have huge fans over facebook.
Yes, this is really true. Even i do have a friend who is earning huge by just promoting his products over social sites. There have been many more advantage of social media but the thing what a person need is patience, dedication and consistent work..
Nice blog anyhow, have bookmarked it in my delicious account!
I agree with your observations. Thanks for commenting and bookmarking!
I am so guilty of not having planned my social media strategy first. I can’t stress how important this point is.
I am still struggling to sort out and intelligently deal with social media for my blogging endeavors. But some things you learn the hard way as you go along.
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There’s a lot of contempt out there at the moment directed at people whose major “crime” seems to be enthusiastic innocence.
I’m not buying it.
Blogging is public. Successes are public, failure is public. So don’t worry about it too much!
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Dave,
I agree with you. It’s totally natural to be excited about learning new things; but sometimes people are critical of this natural exuberance. :)
I think that’s true, and the good thing is that it’s never too late to make some adjustments. Thanks for your feedback!
If you’re having trouble keeping track of your various search strategies, you should consolidate your efforts and leverage one of the many applications that will help you monitor the social web. I have not personally used these services, but they appear to be held in high esteem by knowledgeable people who have.
Yes, there are many tools to help manage your social media profiles and strategies. Thanks for commenting!