You have just created your business, found a brand name, designed your logo and your website. It is now time to tell everybody about it and give your business full exposure on social media. As a freelance communication / advertising / media consultant, currently taking a MOOC in Social Media Marketing with Northwestern University (on Coursera), I found the following 2 articles very useful to start with your Social Media strategy.
In the first article “How To Use Social Media To Promote Your Small Business”, Kym McNicholas (business and technology journalist for Forbes), explains very well the different steps small business entrepreneurs should take to build an effective and successful Social Media strategy. It gives examples of how to best use various social media such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Youtube…
From my own experience, Facebook is probably the best place to start with on social Media. This second article “How to use Facebook to promote your business” from The Marketing Donut, gives a very clear and easy checklist to create and promote your business page on Facebook.
Having accounts on Social is a good way to start, but it is not enough. You must make sure to take the 3 following actions if you want to successfully promote your business on Social Media:
Engage with your followers and friends, talk to them, listen to them and reply to their comments to gain their trust and loyalty.
Reward your audience and customers either with advices, valuable information, or with loyalty programs, exclusive deals or competitions.
Go viral posting regularly and encouraging people to share and spread your conversations and posts widely.
I feel that social media is the wave of the future and even small businesses need to realize that it is essential to have an online presence. A lot can be gained if you know how to use social media to reach your customers.