Social Media Marketing: Using Social Media To Give Your Local Offline Business A Boost
If you own a local business you can learn a lot about the importance of using social media to let people know who you are and what you have to offer.
I have been helping local businesses to build their online presence, enhance their brand, and increase their overall visibility for several years now.
Social media has made this process one that can even be lots of fun.
First of all, Google your name and the name of your business to see what's there.
Most of what we do is indexed by Google these days, so it's important to know where you stand currently.
Be sure to use quotation marks around the words so that you only receive results based on the exact name you have searched.
For example, my search is for "connie ragen green" on Google so that I don't get any results for other women named Connie or anything that is 'green'.
Print out the first page or two to save in a folder.
Social media tends to rank very highly with Google, so if you have already set up accounts on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn they will typically show on your first page.
Go ahead and click on whatever shows up so you'll have a better idea of what someone else will see if they do a search for you.
The most important strategy I will share with you is to make sure you are branding your business apart from yourself.
This means that your company name is more important than your own when it comes to using social media for visibility.
Allow me to share some examples of this.
Companies such as Ford, Pepsi, and even clothing stores like Forever 21 now use Facebook pages to build their business in a big way, but local businesses are doing even better with their social media efforts.
You can do the same exact thing for your business.
On Facebook, start a personal account under your own name and then set up a Fan Page for your business.
This is a fairly simple process to follow from your home page.
Make sure to have some pictures of your business and of your logo to use on your page.
Include as much information as possible so that visitors will be able to contact you easily.
Moderate your page regularly to answer questions and address concerns.
Twitter is making a huge comeback after losing popularity last year.
Your name is limited to fifteen characters, so try using the name or abbreviation for your city in front of your industry, such as @DallasDentist or @SanFranPlumber.
Start following other local businesses and ask them to follow you.
Share information about how you can help others in your community.
My best recommendation here is to jump right in and start the conversation.
A dentist may have information on new dental procedures; a mall recently shared that a Crocs store had just opened; and Pepsi told us about its new soda.
All of this works well in an effort to further engage us and make us think of the business when we have a need for they offer.
Remember that the social media sites are largely visual, so you'll want to upload pictures and images to use in your postings, as well as videos.
I still use my Flip camera to make one or two minutes videos that can be easily uploaded to my YouTube page and then shared on Facebook and Twitter.
Have fun with this, and soon your phone will be ringing like it's 1994!
I have been helping local businesses to build their online presence, enhance their brand, and increase their overall visibility for several years now.
Social media has made this process one that can even be lots of fun.
First of all, Google your name and the name of your business to see what's there.
Most of what we do is indexed by Google these days, so it's important to know where you stand currently.
Be sure to use quotation marks around the words so that you only receive results based on the exact name you have searched.
For example, my search is for "connie ragen green" on Google so that I don't get any results for other women named Connie or anything that is 'green'.
Print out the first page or two to save in a folder.
Social media tends to rank very highly with Google, so if you have already set up accounts on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn they will typically show on your first page.
Go ahead and click on whatever shows up so you'll have a better idea of what someone else will see if they do a search for you.
The most important strategy I will share with you is to make sure you are branding your business apart from yourself.
This means that your company name is more important than your own when it comes to using social media for visibility.
Allow me to share some examples of this.
Companies such as Ford, Pepsi, and even clothing stores like Forever 21 now use Facebook pages to build their business in a big way, but local businesses are doing even better with their social media efforts.
You can do the same exact thing for your business.
On Facebook, start a personal account under your own name and then set up a Fan Page for your business.
This is a fairly simple process to follow from your home page.
Make sure to have some pictures of your business and of your logo to use on your page.
Include as much information as possible so that visitors will be able to contact you easily.
Moderate your page regularly to answer questions and address concerns.
Twitter is making a huge comeback after losing popularity last year.
Your name is limited to fifteen characters, so try using the name or abbreviation for your city in front of your industry, such as @DallasDentist or @SanFranPlumber.
Start following other local businesses and ask them to follow you.
Share information about how you can help others in your community.
My best recommendation here is to jump right in and start the conversation.
A dentist may have information on new dental procedures; a mall recently shared that a Crocs store had just opened; and Pepsi told us about its new soda.
All of this works well in an effort to further engage us and make us think of the business when we have a need for they offer.
Remember that the social media sites are largely visual, so you'll want to upload pictures and images to use in your postings, as well as videos.
I still use my Flip camera to make one or two minutes videos that can be easily uploaded to my YouTube page and then shared on Facebook and Twitter.
Have fun with this, and soon your phone will be ringing like it's 1994!
