Social Media Uses by Small Businesses
создатель Terry Leigh Britton
1. Article Form of this
2. Keeping Things Under Control
2.1. Build up slowly one social tool at a time
2.2. Determine which are most useful and prune out tools that are becoming too much work.
2.3. Consider what kind of input and control you desire.
2.3.1. For instance, Twitter is short and sweet but can be hard to manage. One cannot delete other people's tweets nor remove them or troublesome individuals from your comment stream. Google Plus and Facebook do allow that, for instance. Nonetheless, just about all politicians see the worth of Twitter and "tweet" daily.
2.4. Plan out a month's worth of activities in advance. This allows easier handing-off of social media tasks to others to take care of.
3. Turning Customers into Raving Fans!
3.1. Be certain to plan for things beyond company news and announcements of sales. Have contests; invite people to community events your company takes part in, promoting the event along the way; have "pop" two-hour sales so people will follow your stream to see what you will surprise them with next; award people with great suggestions with prizes, praise and recognition; do the same for your employees, regularly singing their praises in the social media; respond rapidly to customer service requests or to any questions people may have - publically - as this shows your company to be a caring and attentive one.
4. Be Totally Findable!
4.1. Repeatedly post information on how to find you and how to reach you. Post a link to a full-featured contact page, with all the physical addresses, maps, phone numbers, email addresses and contact names readily available. A simple, "We love our customers! Find all contact info here:" followed by a link will suffice.
4.2. Do some work to get your presence on the search engines up there, but don't rely on that - make your customers want to find you! Social media is a powerful tool with which you can win their respect and friendship, and that leads to customer loyalty and those precious word-of-mouth referrals!
5. Basic Uses
5.1. Keeping in touch with customers
5.2. Customer feedback
5.3. Broadcasting news of important events, sales or specials
5.4. Engaging a customer base in a conversation about favorite things about your business.
5.4.1. In essence, you are "crowd sourcing" promotional materials and recommendations via testimonials.
5.5. Adding a human touch - letting customers feel they "know" the principles of the business, or a front-person representing the company.
5.5.1. (Includes photo and quote sharing, and some personal touches as determined to be appropriate.)