Many small business owners have not yet taken advantage of social media to help grow their business. With the apparent benefits social media offers, particularly Facebook, in terms of increasing brand recognition, strengthening client relationships and reducing marketing costs, why is social media seemingly still limping along to gain acceptance among many small business owners?
Some of the reasons I hear include:
- I don't know where to start!
- I'm too busy - I want to take advantage of it but don't have the time right now!
- I don't understand how it can really benefit my business!
- I want to get involved, it's on my To Do list - I just haven't gotten around to it!
While a number of small businesses have entered the social media foray, few have done more than create a business Facebook Page and post infrequent updates. Some, having taken initial steps, have simply pushed Facebook onto the back burner hoping that 'just having a page' will be beneficial. (It isn't!)
For small business owners, most of whom have 'too many irons in the fire' as it is, adding social media to their To Do List is just one more item for them to feel guilty about. It's not that they don't want to 'do' social media. Most of them do - if they knew what 'do' meant.
Simply getting up to speed on how to create a Facebook Page and maintain it let alone creating daily posts is enough to raise a small business owner's blood pressure. Add, "you need a Custom Facebook Landing Page", to the mix and their eyes glaze over.
For many small business owners the perceived and real challenges of social media has them putting aside to another day what could really help them build their business today. But, is it any wonder?
Faced with the usual challenges of establishing a small business, social media seems like one more 'to do' that while important will just have to wait.
If this describes you, and you have no experience with social media period, there are some relatively simple steps you can take that will help you dip your toe in social media and make it more likely you will take the plunge.
Step 1 (30 minutes 1X) - Sign up for Facebook (if you don't already have a Facebook account)
- Go to facebook.com and 'sign up' for a free account.
- Set up your personal Facebook profile and add a photo. You don't need to provide a lot of personal information for this exercise to be useful. In fact, you may be wise to keep personal information to a minimum - the essentials.
Step 2 (15 minutes daily, 5 or 6 days a week) Find friends and family on Facebook and interact with them
- Use the Facebook 'friend finder' to find friends and family already on Facebook to 'friend' - these will be the people you interact with 'online', for now.
- Once you have Facebook friends begin to read their posts and occasionally 'like', comment or share their posts using the buttons provided by Facebook.
Step 3 (30 minutes each week) - Find out how other businesses use Facebook
- Find out what other businesses are using and doing with Facebook by scouting out competitors, in particular the Facebook Pages of larger more successful businesses. This will begin to give you a feel for how Facebook is being used and what seems to work and what doesn't on Facebook.
- Have a look at some of the Facebook Pages for large well-known corporations to see how they're doing it
- Notice what people comment on and what they don't. What posts people 'like' or interact with in some way.
Step 4 (30 minutes a week) - Think, evaluate, strategize, dream
- Make notes, write down thoughts, what do you think you should do, what would be helpful, beneficial, interesting to clients and potential clients.
- Ask yourself "how will this help clients/potential clients and encourage client loyalty/business opportunities now or down the road?"
Step 5 (30 minutes, one time) - Sign up for Twitter
- Go to twitter.com and 'Join Today'.
- Set up your personal Twitter profile and add a photo.
Step 6 (15 minutes daily, 5 or 6 days a week) - Check out your competitors and others. Follow people and businesses and learn what to do and what not to do.
- Check out your competitors (near and far), especially strong and successful ones, to see what they are posting and how they are using Twitter.
- Find people to follow that you can learn from - in your industry and others.
- Begin to post business related information that is helpful, valuable, interesting to others on your Twitter page. 'Retweet' helpful information others post on Twitter with those that (will) follow you.
Essentially, this comes down to investing one hour at the outset to set things up on Facebook and Twitter; then 30 minutes a day (for 5 or 6 days of each week) to get familiar with it; and one hour each week (or another 10 minutes each day) to analyze and strategize based on what you are learning. This will help you 'get your feet wet' on social media giants Facebook and Twitter.
With more than 50% of the population in Canada on Facebook and more than 70% of all Internet users in North America on Facebook, can you afford not to learn more about and take advantage of the opportunities available with social media?
The steps shown above are only a start for those unfamiliar with social media. They will help you become familiar with social media by using Facebook and then Twitter. There is much more to do but taking these steps is a good start.
Social media has huge potential for positively impacting your business. Don't wait to get started. Do it today!
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6493073
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