It seems like today every one is talking about Facebook, Twitter, and Google +, Linked in, RSS feeds, YouTube and countless other social media programs dominate the internet scene. We are often asked by our OKC web design clients to include links and icons to these various social media programs.
However, when you promise to the world that they can reach you in any of these various ways, you have to be prepared to actually answer them. The time it takes to write a blog post, post a Facebook update, or Tweet has to come from somewhere. Having goals of wanting to connect with users is great! However it helps to follow through.
Social Media and your Small Business
- Decide which social media outlets you want to use. With the variety out there, you have to make a decision and stick to it.
- Pick a person, or a small team of people to communicate with the outside world. Remember to present one unified “voice” for your company.
- Allocate the time to your social media program and realize it will take away a few moments from other job responsibilities.
- Don’t over think this! Every single blog post or tweet doesn’t have to be exactly perfect.
- If your homepage has a “Recent News” section and your last news item was posted 2 years ago, you may want to rethink that title.
I often joke with clients who tell me that they want to have social media to be a huge part of their new marketing campaign but they aren’t quite sure what a “Tweeter” is yet. I tell them to create their own personal twitter account, and play around before they commit their company. Just today, I had a conversation with a client who was looking to hire a part time employee to do their social media updates. Specifically a “responsible young person who gets all this stuff”. I think that’s a great idea!
My general advice to you is if you say that you can be reached on Facebook or Twitter, be reachable, approachable, or you might influence your visitors the wrong way. Social media is a great way to talk to and interact with customers, potential customers, or industry professionals. It can increase your traffic to your website and hopefully drive new business in the doors.
By the way, click the link on Google + above if you would like to have an invite 🙂