I want to share information from Malcolm Faulds,
who writes for Inc. Magazine.
If you are like most small businesses, you and your team are stretched thin. If you even have a team. All day long you are servicing customers, delivering products, managing finances and doing whatever it takes to keep your business up and running. The last thing you need is to waste time. But for many small businesses, that’s exactly what they are doing when it comes to marketing with social media.
The typical small business Facebook page is a ghost town. It might have some pictures of the business, a few posts about an event six months ago, and a handful of followers who joined when the page launched. On Twitter, there might be a couple posts a month and none of them are related to any customer question. The same is true for Foursquare. Groupon is like going to the casino: there’s a good chance you’ll come home with empty pockets.
It’s hard to resist the promise of marketing in social media. It’s personal, efficient, and it is growing at a remarkable rate. Your customers spend most of their media time on these sites and they are discussing product experiences and researching purchase decisions. But that doesn’t mean that every business should drop everything and start a Facebook page or a Twitter account. This isn’t like buying an ad in the newspaper or the Yellow Pages; You don’t just set it up and walk away.
To make the most of your social media marketing, you need to have a plan. Social media is about having an ongoing conversation with your customers, not droning on about your business while they ignore you. You have to put in the time to cultivate your existing customers and attract new ones. Yes, this will take a little more time and thought, but that’s why it works. If you “set it and forget it,” you are wasting your time. Guaranteed.
Here are six steps to make sure you don’t waste time in social media:
1. Pick the right channels.
You know that location is everything in business, so make sure you are in the right place. What social media sites do your customers use? How do they use them? Where do they turn to research your product? You need to be where they are and where they are talking to each other. For example, if you run a restaurant, you should pay attention to Yelp. If you have a jogging-goods store, you may want to engage with folks on RunKeeper. If you offer laser hair removal you should know all about Groupon (if you don’t already).
2. Write posts for your customers, not you.
You can’t have a meaningful dialogue with customers if you don’t know what they want to talk about. Think about the questions you hear every day from customers. Look at what people are talking about on discussion boards, in blog comments, on competitor sites, and on review sites. Engage with active customers individually by answering their questions and asking for feedback. Their responses will give you ideas for new blog posts and places to engage folks, and may even lead to new promotions or offerings. Remember, social media marketing is about your customers; it’s not about you.
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