One New Year’s resolution that many small business owners are making is to increase their use of social media to promote their businesses online through sites like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter.
According to a recent survey by VerticalResponse, Inc., 70 percent of small- to medium-sized businesses plan to increase their use of social media in 2010. At the same time, 79 percent say they will not run television ads and 70 percent say they will not make radio buys.
How to get started? Several BBB Accredited Businesses specialize in social media and can train you — or do all for you!
Your BBB offers the following additional advice:
Don’t Get in Over Your Head — If you’re a small-business owner who doubles as the marketing department, the worst thing you could do is launch a large, unmanageable strategy that takes up too much time and ends up neglected. Instead, set aside a few minutes every day to engage one or two aspects of social-media promotion. Start small, such as with a Facebook page or by commenting on blogs or connecting with customers on Twitter. Let your social-media strategy grow and evolve as you learn what works best for your time constraints and business goals.
Create and Share Information – Social media is about engagement, and creating and sharing content is key to connecting with customers and other industry leaders. You may not realize it, but you, as a small-business owner, are an expert and have sound advice and informed opinions to share. When writing your own content, always maintain an appropriate and professional tone and use plenty of links to other sites, blogs or news articles to help illustrate your point. You can share this content on any number of places such as on your own blog, a community blog or on your Facebook or MySpace page.
Keep everything connected – Once you’ve created your page on Facebook, or established your blog or Twitter account or other online presences, cross-promote your content so that the same message is going out across every site. For example, Tweet about your blog post or send a link in a message to your LinkedIn group. Many social media tools can be integrated. For example, you can display a Facebook badge or a Twitter widget on your blog or Web site.
Engage in the Conversation – An online conversation is taking place right now about your business, your industry or issues affecting your community. Inject yourself and opinions into the conversation by following opinion leaders on Twitter and social networking sites and commenting on blog posts. Whenever possible, include a link back to your content or Web site.
Engage with Customers – Your customers are talking about you online — whether you like it or not — on their blogs, consumer-focused Web sites and on review sites such as Yelp, Yahoo! Local and CitySearch.
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About the BBB
The Better Business Bureau, founded in 1912, is a champion for ethics and trust in the marketplace. Only businesses that meet the high BBB standards are invited to become BBB Accredited Businesses. Today, 128 BBBs across the United States and Canada rate more than 3 million local and national businesses and charities with scores ranging from A to F. Only a BBB Accredited Business may elect to participate in BBBOnLine, one of the most trusted and recognized Internet seal programs in the world.
The BBB serving northern Colorado and Wyoming is trending toward 1 million instances of service to consumers and businesses in 2009. These services include reliability reports on local companies and charities, access to companies that can be trusted by industry, help with dispute resolution, and trustworthy information on consumer and business topics.
Barbara Read, VP Communications Director, 970-488-2035, bread@wynco.bbb.org