Social Media Tips for Small Businesses

More businesses are turning to social media like Facebook and Twitter for free, quick and easy promotion.  Rather than pay a lot of money for traditional advertising, small businesses can benefit from their own Facebook page and Twitter feed to get their message out there.  Using social media for advertising can be sticky, though, since social media creates a far different relationship than the standard "advertiser/viewer" exchange.  Here are some tips to navigate the choppy waters of social media advertising to get the most out of your business' social media presence.

Be a Friend

Social media like Facebook, Twitter and Google+ create a relationship with your audience.  Always remember that using social media means your customers interact with family and friends on the same platform they interact with you.  Like it or not, this blurs the lines between categories like "friend," "customer" and "company."  What this means to you is that you must be genuine and conduct yourself on social media according to its own mores and practices.  In other words, be a friend and don't communicate like a company, which leads us to our next point.

Don't Shill

This is the biggest social media marketing mistake I see, usually because marketers are stuck in the old ways of advertising.  They think the tried and true communication methods proven in print and electronic media advertising will also work in social media.  They're wrong about that.

It's tempting to approach social media like any other advertising and just plug away, shilling everything under the sun to drive business.  Trust me when I say that constant huckstering is the best way to get customers to unfriend you.  Think about it.  Would you want what amounts to commercials showing up constantly in your feed?  This is not to say you should never promote your products.  Come on, that's why you're on social media in the first place!  Just be mindful of your posts and temper the flow of selling with non-commercial messages like links to articles, helpful hints or just a simple greeting.  Customers will be more receptive to sales messages if you come across as a friend first and a company second.

Make it Worth their While

Along with your shills and friendly notes, give customers a reason to follow you and give existing friends a reason to stick around.  One way is to publish content relevant to their interest.  Another way that might be better to both parties is to announce deals and special offers.  Discounts and promotions are a great way to get new friends and inspire social media loyalty.  This gives something to your friends (a deal) and give you something as well (more business).

Network

Networking is just as important in social media as it is in the real world.  Use your account to follow the accounts of other local businesses.  Their fans might notice you and start following you, adding to your audience and spreading your promotional message.

I'll wrap up this article with my own shill if you don't mind.  If you live in or around Mt. Airy or Frederick, Maryland, or know someone who does, and need computer repair help, give me a call.  Here's my website, email, Facebook page and Twitter feed.   I offer a wide range of computer services at great prices for both home computer users and small businesses.  Thanks for reading and good luck with your social networking!

#hashtag horrors! Tweets not showing up?

If a Tweet falls in the forest...

I just had a discussion about Twitter that led me to do some research into how their hashtag mechanism works. The whole thing came about when my friend (and sometimes client) joined into a discussion but, upon searching the discussion, couldn't see her Tweets. The post was properly formatted, with a space before and after the hashtag mention, but nothing.

I logged in, checked the discussion, and i could see it just fine.

After doing some online research, it turns out that Twitter over-promises and underdelivers on the hashtag feature.

I found this great post that goes in depth about a similar situation. A Twitter rep told the writer:

Due to current resource constraints, not every Tweet can be indexed in Twitter Search at the moment.
...

While I’m not able to force your Tweets to appear in search, your followers should still receive all of your updates and we will still deliver your @replies to other users.

I can interpret this as such: Twitter "indexes" its Tweets, scouring them for hashtag mentions. When it finds a Tweet with a hashtag, it inserts it into the corresponding hashtag discussion. Twitter simply lacks the resources to index every single Tweet. Do they lack the resources to index in almost real time, or do they lack the resources to index altogether? Will the hashtag Tweet show up eventually, or not at all?

In both questions, I'm assuming the latter. Yes, you'll see Tweets in discussions tagged as "one minute ago." So consider this, one minute ago, 30 Tweets were made with that hashtag. You're seeing the lucky Tweet that got indexed. The other 29? You'll see them if you're an active follower of any of those Twitter members, but that's it.

I know this is a First World Problem, but Twitter should at least be more up front with its users instead of promoting a feature whose functionality is hit or miss at best.

Anyway, use the link up there on the right to follow me on Twitter.

If you can!

Thanks!

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