I am often asked what is social media and how does it apply to businesses? My response is this: social media (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and blogs) are vehicles to drive traffic to your Website. Once a potential client arrives, a well-designed Website will help to sell your product or service.

Social media provide ways to use word-of-mouth to advertise your business. People take recommendations about products and services from their friends. When you choose a movie to see, you probably read a review about it or it was recommended by a friend. Social media expand your audience. For example, you have people on Facebook who are fans of your business. When you post an update or announcement on your Facebook fan page, it shows up on the News Feed page of your fans so their friends see those updates, thus your audience has now grown to include your fans’ friends.

Social media channels allow you to interact with your customers this way so they get to know you and learn to trust you. Over time, they are more likely to buy from you. Posting updates of interest to your clients, like tips, provides value.  The main thing to remember is that people don’t want to feel that you are marketing to them, but that they are benefitting from your updates.

Significantly, social media allow you to reach a broad audience because your business can appear in the results of a search in Google or another search engine. A blog is a big help in this area, but it is also valid for Twitter. You can increase the chances of being found in searches by submitting your blog to the following sites:  www.technorati.com,  www.blogarama.com, www.pingomatic.com, www.alltop.com, www.digg.com and www.stumbleupon.com.  Include links to any companies to which you refer in your post.  Whenever possible, use your keywords (the search terms someone would enter into a search engine to find what you sell) in your blog post and in your title. Always find ways to include a link to your Website in your blog post but, as mentioned previously, try to be subtle in doing so: You don’t want to come across too aggressively.

General Strategies for using social media

1. Your fundamental social media strategy is to increase sales by driving traffic to your Website. The more often you add posts (i.e., updates, articles) to  your social media sites, the more your clients, fans, and other contacts see what you have to say. If you make your posts of a relationship-building nature (share expertise, reviews, etc.), your contacts will have reason to come back time and again to view your posts.
2. Being successful at social networking requires active engagement. Post entries to your blog at least once a week. Post updates to Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn at least twice a week. A link to your blog post can be one of these posts.
3. Put a mailing list sign-up box on your Website, Facebook Fan Page, and newsletter that is linked directly to your email service (Vertical Response, Constant Contact, etc.).
4. Put links to your social media sites on your Website.
5. Include a monthly or bi-monthly e-newsletter in your social media campaign. Send this to everyone on your mailing list, even if they are following you on Twitter, a fan of your Facebook page, or a connection on LinkedIn. Include links to your social media sites and to your Website so the newsletter acts as another means of drawing people to your message.
6. Keep a notebook, and be sure to write down ideas as they occur to you for your various social media outlets. That way you’ll have a reservoir of subjects available to blog or post about, and you won’t find yourself scrambling at the last minute to come up with an idea.
7. There are sites like www.SocialOomph.com and www.Ping.fm and www.HootSuite.com that allow you to send updates to a variety of social media sites at once. It’s worth checking them out to see which one suits you.
8. Build a professional profile and be personable. Include a photo of yourself. While the photo doesn’t have to be taken by a professional photographer, it should be professional in nature. A photo of you at a party with a glass in your hand looking a little worse for wear doesn’t present a professional image. If you wish to share photos like that then your Facebook album is the place for that. Do remember that you can adjust the settings for your albums so that you control who sees what photos.

Sue Boedeker
Valley Virtual Assistance
www.valley-virtual-assistance.com