How to get started . . . using social media for growing your business

“Overview of Social Media/Internet Marketing”

“Twitterville”

Groundswell

“Beyond the Hype”

Tyler in playpen 1“OK, already, I’m convinced.

Now what do I pick up first?”

So you finally “get it”:

You can’t Get It without an Online Presence.

But getting started is a lot like being a toddler put into a playpen with a bunch of new toys:

What to pick up and play with first?

Q: I’ve got a small business, and I want to begin using social media, so where do I start?

A: No doubt, there are as many answers as there are “experts” to advise you. However, what everyone agrees is that you just need to get going and DO IT!

MARKETING 101

1. What you SHOULD do is spend some time deciding What you want to accomplish with social media strategies:

Do you want to . . .

  • Drive more traffic to your website?
  • Build a closer community feeling with your customers?
  • Establish or change your organization’s reputation?
  • Find out what your competitors are up to?
  • Know how to find and hire the best employees?
  • Discover trends as they are happening?
  • Share your knowledge and expertise?
  • Monitor the marketplace to see what people are saying about you, your products, and/or your industry?
  • Learn how to be a better, more efficient, effective business person?

Or . . . do you just want to dive in to see what Social Media is all about?

2. Once you have chosen a goal — or goals — from the list above, then you may want to describe what achieving that goal looks like, e.g.,

a) Bring 40 new customers to your website

b) Engage 20 clients in a forum conversation

c) Find three skilled and motivated interns

3. This “description” can be your formal objective, for which you should set a time frame  — and then you can measure your results and evaluate your program.

SOCIAL MEDIA 101

Note: Of course the exact route you take can vary —  depending on your objective.

But here is a 4-step plan to develop a strategy and answer the question: What should we do first? second? third? fourth?

STEP ONE: Twitter

STEP TWO: Facebook

STEP THREE: LinkedIn

STEP FOUR: Blogging

Today’s Post will help you become a TWEETER

Twitter certainly is one of today’s most popular social media buzzwords, and a platform where businesses are finding real, measureable ways to listen to and engage with customers.

PLUS signing on to Twitter is the easiest social media effort you can make: To take this step, try to allow yourself at least an hour to (a) sign up on Twitter.com; (b) read some how-to information [the four Twitter 101 lessons listed below]; (c) and play — with FOLLOWING people, READING their tweets, and WRITING some tweets of your own.

Click for TWITTER HOMEWORK

NEWBIES: If you have any questions — or cool Twitter experiences — please share them in the comments section below. LOTS OF LUCK!


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10 thoughts on “How to get started . . . using social media for growing your business”

  1. I do have facebook page and blog but i didnt know Twitter should be the first one. Now i do have and i hope during my course i will find out why it should be the first one. I also started to make a Linkedln page but i didnt finish it. Im not sure, but seems like its good for professional life.

    1. Mariana, social media sites are not “one size fits all”; in other words the sites have different uses/functionality. What you say on one site should often be different than what you say on another. One common explanation compares MySpace with Facebook with LinkedIn. Imagine that MySpace is like meeting your friends at a bar; Facebook is like meeting them at a backyard barbeque, and LinkedIn is where you see them at the office. You wouldn’t say the same things in each of those venues, would you?

      Regarding Twitter being our first platform, you should keep in mind that Twitter is where news is breaking FIRST.

  2. I agree that you can use twitter for growth and popularity of business, music, and ect .. I put all my songs on twitter to be downloaded free and anytime my fraternity throws a party or my club i promote at throws a party i post it on twitter ..

  3. Twitter is definitely a great source for marketing. Reading all these articles about social media I must say it has changed my opinion about twitter. I only started twittering because of friends, but I will try to change and put more substantial stuff on twitter than I did at first. It can’t be too bad to try a free networking service and try these social media strategies!

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