With the actual economic crisis, lots of small businesses are trying to find their place in the market. One of the main ways to promote their products or the services they offer is having a website, of course. But nowadays there is another very important means to promote yourself and your company. It is the use of social media. How can social media help your business to boom? Well, this is what this post will try to explain.
There are six different kinds of social media, social networks (like Facebook or Linkedin), Bookmarking sites (Delicious or StumbleUpon), Social News (Digg and Reddit), Media Sharing (Youtube, Flickr…), Microblogging (Twitter…), and Blog Comments and Forums.
The most useful ones when it comes to boosting your company are social networks, media sharing and microblogging.
As you may know, social networks are services with which people with similar interests and background can be connected. They allow you to connect with other users in various ways, they enable you to set up groups and they usuall consist of a profile. But how can these social networks help my companies? Here is the answer:
How Facebook can help small businesses
There are a few things you must think about if you decide you want your business to be on Facebook. The first thing is that you don’t put your company on facebook just for the sake of it, you must bear in mind this is a place to interact with your clients and prospective clients, so you might as well make an impression on them.
Facebook is a marketing tool that you have to make the most of, so ask yourself “How much time am I going to spend using Facebook to publicise my company?” This is very important because keeping your Facebook Fan page regularly updated may be a weary task but it’s also very effective if you really want to give your company a boost.
But how exactly does updating your company’s Facebook Fan Page help your busines?
Well, keeping your fan page regularly updated ensures that your fans will return to it and it is also a good way to get new fans (and maybe new clients), because your fans’ walls will show your updates and these will be visible to your fans’ families and friends.
You must also bear in mind the importance of monitoring discussions. A very important part of updating is making sure all of the queries and concerns your fans post on your Facebook page are solved and satisfied, so you should constantly be monitoring your page.
This is all pretty hard work so it’s advisable to set a goal before your company starts appearing on facebook, like for example in what percentage you expect to increase your sales or your company’s name recognition in a certain age range such as (from 25 to 34-year olds).
Well, once you’ve made up your mind to use Facebook to boost your company you should get a Fan page. It’s very easy, you just have to click on Create a Page for a celebrity, band or business when you enter Facebook.com.
But know your marketing skills come into action.
First you have to name your fan page, so make sure you keep branding efforts in mind and you use full words and spaces when specifying what kind of business your company does.
It is also convenient to link your Fan page to Twitter, because tghis will add your updates, links, photos, notes and events to Twitter and allow your Twitter Followers to view all your Facebook information, so if you don’t have a Twitter account make sure you make one quickly (I’ll tell you more about how Twitter can help your brand later on).
I would also recommend to use your company’s logo as a photo for your Facebook Fan Page, particularly if your company isn’t widely known yet, because this will help its brand awareness.
It’s really just not that hard, make sure you’re clear when you explain what your business is about and don’t forget to make your facebook fan page interesting with links and photos and also videos. If you do this and take your time Facebook will definitely help your company.
How Linkedin can help small businesses
Linkedin never used to let you have a profile with your company’s name on it. On the contrary, if you tried to do so it would automatically delete your profile. But new times bring new ways, and right now Linkedin has Company Pages.
These pages are similar to Facebook pages and they include a link to your company’s webpage, basic info, your company’s logo, you can add videos and also Import Blog Posts and Twitter Feed… but there are some differences, however.
For example, Linkedin allows you to put up your own banner ads (up to three of them) with links back to your company’s webpage, and also Follow Us on LinkedIn Button, a highly recommended feature that will allow you to paste a bit of code on your website that will allow people to follow your Linkedin profile as well.
How Google + can help small business
Basically, Google + is like Facebook only more grownup like. It also has a wall and a newsscreen, but it’s better for businesses because it allows you to easily drag or drop friends into circles, so you can easily organize your contacts into different circles like prospects, customers, partners…
Okay, but how about media sharing services? We all know what they are, they are companies that allow us to share videos, photos and also to create profiles and to make comments. But how can they help our company? Let’s think about youtube for example.
How Youtube can help small businesses
Youtube is the second most used website on the web, so it has millions of people looking for all kinds of videos every day. Most of the things they’re looking for are just for fun but they may also be looking for information on businesses, or they might be wondering who to call if they need (just anything). So how can youtube help your business?
You just need to do three things to boost your business with youtube.
One, create a youtube account and post a video. Two, link that video to your company’s webpage. Three, use KEYWORDS.
All three things are important but maybe using keywords is the most important one because believe it or not, it’s the only way to actually “exist” on the web. Use the wrong keywords and your practically dead (and so is your business).
So what keywords should you use?
Make sure you name your video with words telling us exactly what it shows, this way people looking for what your business offers will be able to find your video easily and be acquainted with your company.
Another way to promote your business is by Microblogging. Microblogging services focus on short updates that are sent to anybody who’s subscribed to receive them. The most well known Microblogging service is Twitter.
How Twitter can help small businesses
Twitter is getting more and more famous lately with five to ten thousand new people joining it every day! This means that if your company’s on Twitter you have at least five thousand new prospective clients every day apart from the already existing 300 million Twitter users.
Companies are already aware of this and right now 95% of them incorporate Twitter into their marketing strategy. it’s the way they offer their newest services to thousands of potential customers.
It’s also very useful because you can instantly receive customer feedback within minutes.
Go Mobile
Another very good way to promote your company and your business is going mobile. This allows your website to be seen on mobile devices just as it’s seen on normal desktop computers. Onbile gives you the opportunity to do this at a very reasonable price. Read everything you need to know about creating a mobile website with Onbile here.
If you want to learn a few reasons why your company should go mobile click here, and if what you want is more information about mobile websites go to this article.