Social Media in Business – How To Get Started

Social media is the hot stuff right now. You hear about it in the news, your SEO guy is talking about it and your friends, relatives, kids and pretty much everyone you know is using it. These days your car can access your Facebook newsfeed, and your phone can automatically check you in to wherever you are and tweet about it. Of course, anywhere there’s people, there’s potential, so how do you effectively use social media for your business?

I think everyone at this point realizes that Facebook and Twitter are the big guns, so it’s not so much where you should go, it’s how to effectively use it that irks a lot of business owners. There are a ton of other social media options out there that a lot of business owners aren’t even aware of that can help you in different ways, and we’ll be discussing a few of the most effective options here.

If there is something you have a question on, or there is something I didn’t cover, just post a comment below and I’d be happy to answer!

So, on to the good stuff.

Facebook

What it is:
Just in case you’ve been living in an underground bunker for 10 years, Facebook is a platform that allows its users to connect with friends online. It allows them to share where they are, what they’re doing and special events in their life.

For business, it means that you have a ton of people in one spot that clearly list what they are interested in right inside their profile.

What your business can do:
The first thing you should do for your business is create a Facebook page specifically for your business. If you are already established and you have a few people happy with your product or service, or a few family members and friends willing to “Like” the page, a fan page is a great way to start. If you are not on Facebook at all, you’ll need to create a personal profile first in order to create a fan page. If you still need to wrap your head around what exactly it is, you can check out my Facebook fan page here.

Once your page is created, there are a number of things you can do, but one of the first things you should do is reserve your URL, or the actual web address people will type in to get to your profile. For example: http://www.facebook.com/YOURNAMEHERE.

Common practice and etiquette:
When posting an update on your fan page, you should keep in mind that everyone that “Liked” your page will see the update you posted in their news feed. The inner business person’s first thought may be to cram your website and/or special offers down their throat constantly, but that’s not the way to go about it.

See, Facebook is a social platform, meaning that people are there for a social experience. If you constantly try to sell them something, they’ll either ignore you or completely remove you. A better approach is to be helpful. Post articles or links from others in a related field to you and give them generally helpful information. When they see that you are focusing on helping them out first, they will be more receptive to your own offers and links. If you run a blog or another website where you can post updated content consistently, a fan page would be a good place to post them, but when it’s all you post, people tend to get annoyed.

Another very important thing is to be active in the community. Don’t just help them passively by posting information, offer insight by commenting on their posts. Answer questions that people ask, especially if they post on your wall. Most of all though, don’t be a robot. Show some personality, and help people as YOU. If you are a small business, don’t try and act all corporate. People can tell the difference, and you shouldn’t deceive them.

Some action steps you should take right now on Facebook:

• Create a Facebook fan page or business page
• Reserve your fan page URL
• Post relevant content
• Post links to relevant articles in your industry
• Limit the amount of self-promotion you do
• Be helpful
• Interact with people and be active in the community

Twitter

What it is:
Twitter is a micro-blogging platform that allows users to post whatever they want, any time that they want in fewer than 140 characters. Most twitter users make use of it to update their friends with where they are or what they are doing, but quite a few discussions take place there as well.

For business, Twitter allows you to post real-time industry news and completely relevant content in seconds. It also allows you to target users that are talking about a specific subject RIGHT NOW…meaning within the last couple of minutes, not months.If you still don’t get it, you can check out my twitter account here.

What your business can do:
The very first step on twitter is to create an account and reserve your username. After you’ve created an account, Twitter will walk you through finding people that you know, or people with a common interest. Do this, and follow anyone that looks interesting, as Twitter is useless when you’re not following anyone.

After you’ve followed a few people, read what they have to say, and become familiar with how twitter works. Notice that the people that constantly post their own links are annoying…and consumers think that too so don’t do it.

When someone posts something that you like, you can “Retweet” it. On the Twitter feed page there is a “Retweet” button just below the post. Use it a few times. Essentially what it does is post that tweet on your profile and tell everyone about the original source. So if you have a dog shampooing business, and you follow another dog shampooing business and they post something like this:

“It looks like dog shampooing is about to change forever because of this: [LINK]”

And they link to an article that you really like, you can click the “Retweet” button and post it so that all of your followers can see it.

Common practice and etiquette:
So after you are familiar with the kind of stuff that gets posted, you should start posting a couple times of day. You should post helpful information in your industry like “When shampooing your dog, make them sit down and calm them to make sure they aren’t scared” That may not be a particular helpful item, I don’t know, I’m not a dog shampooer, but you get the idea.

Once you start posting, you need to find people interested in your product or service. The best and easiest way to do this is to find a popular person in your industry, and view their followers, and then follow the people following them. Most of these followers get notified when you follow them, so they’ll look at your profile, and if you post helpful stuff, they’ll most likely follow you back.

Don’t overdo this though: don’t follow more than 200 people a day, and according to twitter rules, you can’t follow more than 2000 people without gaining a following first.

One last thing to mention on twitter is that there are a number of free or cheap tools out there to schedule your tweets. I won’t go into direct detail here on how to use them, but a few of my favorites are TweetDeck, Buffer and HootSuite.

Some action steps you should take right now on Twitter:

• Start a twitter account
• Search for and follow related people in your industry
• Learn how Twitter works
• Follow some of your related industries followers
• Post helpful content
• Retweet others often

Digg

What it is:
Digg.com is a news site that allows people to “Digg” news articles that they like, and comment on them. It is a great place for users to go to and find out the most popular news out there, and not just what a news website wants you to see on the front page.

What your business can do:
Firstly you need to figure out if Digg is right for your business. If you are active in the industry or you have a site with new content on a regular basis, it’s great. If you are a brick and mortar business that doesn’t really publish or comment on content on the internet, you may want to skip Digg for business and maybe use it for personal use.

Keeping with the trend here, the first thing you need to do is create a Digg account. Once you have a Digg account you can submit your website content to Digg, and have others “Digg” or vote on it.

Common practice and etiquette:
It’s worth mentioning that if you have a static website that rarely changes, or you have a site that really is about your business and not necessarily helpful to people or a good read, you shouldn’t submit your site more than once.

If you are a content publisher, you can submit each one of your new articles to Digg, both to get them referenced by the search engines quickly, and to tell potential people about your article. Again, I think I need to stress that if what you are submitting is not helpful in some way, it probably won’t get any Diggs, and it’s pointless to keep trying to post it.
You should also keep an eye on the news in your industry on the Digg.com website, because the popular news would be perfect for posting on your Facebook or Twitter profile.

Some action steps you should take right now on Digg:

• Determine if your site is worth submitting to Digg
• Create a Digg.com account
• Submit and categorize your new content as it’s published
• Keep an eye out on Digg for useful stuff for your other profiles
• Digg articles that you like, don’t constantly focus on self-promotion

Delicious

What it is:
Delicious is a social bookmarking website that allows users to save their favorites sites, articles or stories all in one place online. It is useful when you have more than one computer and you want to share your bookmarks across them, or you want to share and give your friends access to your favorite sites.

What your business can do:
The first thing you should do (again) is create an account on del.ico.us. Once you have an account, the first thing you should do is bookmark your Facebook, Twitter and Digg account profiles, but that’s about where the self-promotion ends.
If you have a dynamic site that updates consistently like a blog, you can bookmark each new article. That helps for search engine and backlink purposes as well as anyone that wants to see what you are interested in.

Common practice and etiquette:
After the initial set up, just keep an eye out for any relevant articles or news in your industry and then add them to your bookmarks so that others can see the kind of stuff you are interested in. Also be sure to make all of your bookmarks “Public” so that everyone can see them. Over time, you will build a running list of helpful articles in your industry, and people will come to your profile to learn about the subject, effectively making you look like the expert.

Some action steps you should take right now on Delicious:

• Create a delicious account
• Bookmark all of your stuff
• Bookmark any relevant information in your industry when you find it
• Make all of your bookmarks public

StumbleUpon

What it is:
StumbleUpon in its simplest for is essentially a site where users can go to and find random websites and information based on their custom set interests. It’s useful because sometimes people get bored online, and StumbleUpon allows them to find websites that could interest them, but they wouldn’t know how to find otherwise.

What your business can do:
The first thing you should do is create an account on StumbleUpon.com and reserve your username. Once you sign up, you should submit your site, and any individual pages that have a specific goal or focus. If you have a blog, your homepage could be about a general idea, but you may want to add each individual article to StumbleUpon under its own specific category. That way it is more targeted and users are more likely to stay.

Common practice and etiquette:
Don’t be a spammer and categorize your stuff like it’s supposed to be categorized. Don’t throw it into every category because you want to get noticed. Sure you may get some extra traffic, but those people won’t be interested in what you’re looking for, and what good is someone that doesn’t want what you are selling or offering? Not to mention that nobody will appreciate it.

Some action steps you should take right now on StumbleUpon:

• Create an account on StumbleUpon
• Submit or Add your site content
• Add any additional articles or pages that have their own focus
• Add new content to StumbleUpon as you add it to your site

Some final thoughts

There are a ton of social media platforms out there, and the five Ive listed about are just some of the more popular ones. Each one has its own uses, pros and cons, so each one should be used a little bit differently.

Social Media is the big thing right now, but you shouldn’t abuse it. You are dealing with real people and you have to remember that. If you spam your links and offers constantly, no one will like you, and you’ll get nothing out of it. If you aim to generally be helpful and help your customer and target audience out FIRST, before promoting yourself, they will respect you. If they respect you, they’ll do business with you.

As long as you follow the golden rule to be helpful, you’ll be fine.

It’s scary to start out in social media, I get it. I’ve walked a lot of business owners through it before, and they were all fine, you will be too. Don’t worry, just jump in and have fun with it!

What’s your favorite social media platform for business? Leave the answer below with any thoughts, questions or comments!

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