It Pays to Be Social?Small Business Social Media Strategies

Technological resources for small businesses are expanding at a rapid pace, with companies now offering everything from accounting solutions to customer management software on a variety of platforms, ensuring that professionals always have access to the tools they need to run their businesses.

While some of these technological solutions may seem complicated and costly, there is one IT tool that has become particularly popular for its ease of use, return on investment, and cost-efficiency, and that is social media.

Small business owners do not necessarily have to be exceptionally marketing-savvy to realize that social networking websites and other social media tactics have become increasingly popular ways for businesses to market themselves and establish an online presence.

While some small business owners are wary of the increased exposure that can come with social networking, the benefits most likely outweigh the costs - as most social media tools are free or close to it, the platform is one of the most cost-effective marketing strategies out there, and therefore does not require any tricky accounting solutions to work into a small business budget.

In addition, the number of consumers using social media websites continues to skyrocket—Facebook now boasts more than 300 million active users, TechCrunch reports that Twitter adds 8 million new users each month, and LinkedIn recently hit the 50-million user mark.

For small businesses, this translates to a wide net of users who are ready and willing to receive a brand message or promotional information.

But with so many social media options out there, how is a small business owner to choose the right platform? It all depends on the campaign goals.

Social networking websites

These websites have become one of the most popular sectors of social media available. Online communities such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn have emerged as valuable resources for consumers and businesses alike.

Social networking websites should be the jumping-off point for small businesses interested in establishing a social media presence, as social networking profiles are relatively easy to understand, implement and maintain.

With Facebook, companies can create a profile for the business itself, or for a specific brand or product. On this page, the business can collect fans, and update them about the company by posting news, photos, links, company updates, or blog posts on the profile page.

A high fan count is a valuable marketing tactic in and of itself, as it shows visitors how quantifiably popular the brand is. However, that should not be the company's primary concern, as effective social networking strategies involve more than just acquiring fans. They involve forming relationships, increasing brand exposure, and giving the company a more personable and relatable appearance, among other things.

Twitter is much like Facebook, only without the profile page. Companies acquire followers in the same way they acquire Facebook fans, and can update them with company news and other postings.

LinkedIn focuses on the professional community, and is typically used as more of a hiring and networking tool than a consumer-facing, brand-building tool. Like Facebook fans and Twitter followers, a company acquires LinkedIn connections, who can then see information about the company including its recent news, basic information and even key employees.

An off-shoot of social networking is blogging—Twitter is actually characterized as microblogging—in which companies have their own website to write more informally to customers and clients.

Multimedia sharing

Like many social media tools, video-sharing websites such as YouTube started as a consumer-to-consumer platform. But as businesses caught on to the power of viral marketing, they began posting promotional videos on the website.

The power of YouTube is the ease and speed with which videos are shared. If a company can create a popular video, it can be sure to see widespread and almost instantaneous brand exposure, without any more work on the company's part.

Reviews

This is the aspect of social media that intimidates many small businesses. This is because consumers wield a good deal of power when writing reviews, especially on popular platforms such as Yelp.com. A bad review is highly visible and can have a dramatic impact on the business, but a good review can have the opposite effect. The risk is worth it, and often times a business has no choice but to have a presence on a review site.

To regain a bit of control in this situation, companies are advised to constantly monitor their reviews, acting on both positive and negative reviews. Positive reviews should be advertised and passed along, while negative reviews merit a response to the poster. Often times, a customer will change or remove a negative post if the company sends them a personal message apologizing or offering a conciliatory coupon.

Final words

Actually, there are no final words in social media. The platform is constantly updated and rapidly evolving, making it imperative that companies stay on top of both their existing online reputation and the new tools available to help them promote the business.