Follow me on Twitter. Join my Facebook group. Link to me on LinkedIn. See my video on YouTube. In the olden days – say five years ago – it was enough for a small business to market its services with advertising and public relations. But in the last few years, an avalanche of new opportunities has cascaded on the Internet in the form of social networking sites.
These sites give entrepreneurs more opportunities to get the word out about their
companies, but they’ve also made many of us feel overwhelmed, trying to keep up. What’s a small business person to do? Do you really have to be Tweeting all day? For the uninitiated or under-initiated, I’m here to help. First, recognize the advantages and limitations of social networking sites.
Advantages:
• Connect with lots of new people, just as with real-life networking.
• Get the word out without an intermediary, such as a pesky reporter or columnist!
• Establish yourself as an expert in a field.
• Stay on top of your field and your competitors.
• Connect with your own customers.
Limitations:
• Can consume a huge amount of time.
• Most connections will never convert to paying clients or customers.
• A zillion of your competitors are out there.
Managing your social networking visibility can be a full-time job – in fact, many companies employ people just to be doing that. But you have a business to run.
So here’s Leigh’s handy-dandy field guide to social networking sites as they
relate to your small business. Twitter. Twitter’s the Internet darling of the moment, allowing users to send very short messages (limited to 140 characters) known as “tweets.” You could choose to ‘follow’ me by searching for Leigh B. (Twitter doesn’t allow spaces so my Twitter name is thecaddyspace). I “tweet” about things I think small business people would find interesting or sometimes amusing. This enables you to get more of Leigh B (you do want more, don’t you?) than you can from just my weekly column.
Twitter is expanding wildly, but a recent study showed there’s a huge number of
“Twitter Quitters” — 60% of people who start Twitter stop within a month. So the
jury’s still out on Twitter’s usefulness from a long-term business standpoint. In the
meantime, Twitter’s a good way to keep your name in front of people. LinkedIn. Unlike all the other major social networking sites, LinkedIn is dedicated to helping people connect for business rather than social purposes. While I’m not a power user of LinkedIn, I’ve found it useful to search for consultants and contractors, identify people in companies I hope to do business with. It’s also become a major source for posting professional job openings. If you’re a consultant, headhunter, or sell business services, you definitely need to check out LinkedIn.
Facebook. The heavy-weight of social networking in the U.S., Facebook is great for keeping in touch with people you care about and finding people you’re out of touch with. You can create a fan page for your business (we have one for my company, The Planning Shop) or start or join a group related to your interests. I love it for seeing what my family and friends are up to. Because so many people are on Facebook, we plan on dedicating more time to our company’s Facebook page soon.
MySpace. Once the leading social networking site, it’s lost ground to Facebook, especially among adults. But it’s still a huge draw, especially for teenagers. It’s
also good for building support for certain types of business, such as bands and
other music-related companies. YouTube. This site is all about videos, so you may think it has nothing to do with business. But businesses have discovered it’s a great way to provide information to prospects and customers. Why not take some video of the products you sell or of you describing your services (or video testimonials) and upload them to
YouTube? Then, you can direct prospects to YouTube to check it out. One thing’s for sure: social networking is here to stay. Most businesses will needto know how to use it. I’d like to know your business experiences with socialnetworking sites. Email me at chews4health13@gmail.com. Or send me a commet
Contact Me
Name: Leigh B
Email: chews4health13@gmail.com
Website 1: Chews4Health http://chews-4-health.yolasite.com/
Website 2:Chews4Health Marketinghttp://chews-4-health-marketing.yolasite.com/
