How to Choose Social Media to ‘Fit’ Your Business

 Brand Awareness, Small Business, Social Media, Social Media Tips  No Responses »
Feb 252013
 

Social media can be challenging for SMEs in terms of understanding and implementing it.  They are constantly being encouraged to set up social media platforms for their business but where do they begin?

As a tool, social media has the potential to reach and connect with customers and to let everyone know about your business.  Investing time and money is crucial so make sure the ‘fit’ is the best for your business. Here are some tips:

Research

Spend some timing exploring which social media platform will be the best suited to your business. What does your target audience use, how do they use the platform and how do they interact? This can assist in directing you to what platform is most likely to support you.

Have a Positive Attitude

It may seem like a strange one but most SMEs that get involved in social media do so because everyone else is.  This means you are less likely to believe in social media and its potential.  Social media needs to be seen as another tool to use for business not the only one.

Start with One or Two Platforms

Anymore and it can become overwhelming in terms of what needs to be done.  Once the platform has been chosen, invest in a strategy.  Then be patient as you develop and engage with your audience.

Determine your Goals

Set goals so you know what you want to achieve.  If you are able to measure your success you can determine whether your strategy is working for your business.

If you what to give social media a try, then make sure you consider what is involved, then put a plan into place and commit to working with it long term.  This will more likely bring some success in terms of goal achievement and will keep you flexible enough in a very dynamic environment.

Give it a try and see what happens!

What has worked for others?

Thanks for reading!

Feel free to ‘tweet’ or ‘repost’ this article or leave your comments….

 Posted by on 25 February, 2013 at 12:53 pm

The Benefits of Social Media for Business

 Brand Awareness, Online Marketing, Social Media, Social Media Tips  No Responses »
Sep 172012
 

Social media continues to grow.  As such it offers many benefits to SMEs.  Although, there are a number of pros and cons related to social media platforms, not considering these platforms is possibly a negative for businesses.

Think of social media as an opportunity that needs to be part of a broader overall marketing strategy to maximise benefits.  If used consistently and strategically there are many possible advantages.

Here are some possible benefits to consider:

Increase your Visibility

When you participate in the network, there is greater potential that others see you and come to know you, extending your network and improving your chances of creating business opportunities.

Industry Conversation

Participating in a conversation that is relevant to your industry makes you visible.  Reporting on industry news and providing commentary promotes your expertise.

Improve Your Google Ranking

Social media platforms are ranked quite high up in a Google search.  Thus when people look you up via a search engine anyone can easily find you and connect with you.

Competitive Intelligence

Useful information can be gleamed by monitoring what your competitors are doing and saying.  This constructive information can be used for dynamic intelligence merely by scanning their content.

Brand Awareness

SMEs can keep their brand at the top of mind for people.  By easily linking to articles or content on your website, the brand name can be kept at the forefront.

Feedback Mechanism

Launching a new product or website?  Social media platforms allow instant reaction.  Not only is it free, the feedback is valuable as it is from your target audience.

What are people’s  experiences?

Thanks for reading!

Feel free to ‘tweet’ or ‘repost’ this article or leave your comments….

 Posted by on 17 September, 2012 at 11:00 am

Benefits of Using Twitter for SMEs

 Brand Awareness, SEO, Small Business, SMEs, Twitter  No Responses »
Aug 132012
 

Twitter is one of the fastest growing social network platforms in the online space with unbelievable growth.  As such it offers many benefits to SMEs.  It can be used for a number of purposes and if used consistently and strategically there are many possible advantages.

Here are 6 benefits in using Twitter for business:

Brand Awareness: Twitter allows SMEs to keep their brand at the top of mind for people.  By easily linking to articles or content, the brand name can be kept at the forefront.

Competitive Intelligence: useful information can be gleamed by monitoring what your competitors are doing and saying.  By scanning their tweets, profile and contacts valuable business intelligence can be gained.

Industry Conversation: participating in conversation makes you visible.  Reporting on industry news and providing commentary promotes your expertise.  Listening to the audience as they engage provides useful knowledge.

Twitter and Mobile: as Twitter is limited to 140 characters, its mobile interaction is effortless.  Receiving updates is easy via SMS and it becomes a transportable communication tool – very influential for modern day business communication.

SEO Increase: use Twitter to drive traffic to your website (or a preferred page), particularly if you have valuable content for you audience.  This may assist in enticing conversion.

Feedback:  Do you have specific questions that you want answered?  Use this mechanism to gain feedback by posting your queries on Twitter with instant and helpful comments.

Although these benefits can also apply to other social media platforms Twitter’s uniqueness of 140-character limit can be used to advantage.  Most individuals don’t want to read long pieces of information so short tweets providing valuable content which your target audience finds beneficial is priceless.  The future lies in mobile communication and Twitter is ideal for this interaction.

Thanks for reading!

Feel free to ‘tweet’ or ‘repost’ this article or leave your comments….

 Posted by on 13 August, 2012 at 3:54 pm