Kim States with Inside Tuscan Business wrote that small businesses are shifting their marketing strategy away from expensive ad buys and are increasingly looking toward social media engagement as the less expensive alternative this year.
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.
There’s no question that adopting a comprehensive social media strategy can be an inexpensive and effective way to improve customer relations and spread the word about your business. But that doesn’t mean you should put it at the top of your 2010 To Do List and start “tweeting” like a maniac. In fact, she had one piece of advice for small business owners: don’t plunge in.
For your own sanity – and success – ease into the waters thoughtfully when planning to launch a social media strategy lest you abandon ship in frustration – or even worse, do your business more harm than good.
Consider these five tips before tweeting one word:
Don’t get in over your head – If you’re a small business owner who is also 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.
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 links to other sites, blogs, or news articles to help illustrate your point.
Keep everything connected – Once you’ve created your page on Facebook, or established your blog or Twitter account, 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.
Engage with customers – Your customers are talking about you online whether you like it or not on their blogs, consumer-focused websites and on review sites like Yelp, Yahoo! Local, and CitySearch. While you can’t take control of the conversation, you can help steer it by listening, engaging with customers and working to resolve any problems.
ngage 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 website.
http://www.azbiz.com/articles/2010/01/02/news/on_guard/doc4b3b82e834515702809935.txt
Tags: social media, social media tips
