I was quite happy with my social media efforts for my kids shoe shop until I came across an article by James Debono which has got me thinking. Do I use social media in small business correctly and if not what should I be doing.
Here’s an extract from his blog
is this a marketing site or a social site?
Social media for small business should be more social and less about marketing. Those businesses that see it as another vehicle for advertizing their products and wares will find a very mute audience.
To make the most of social media, small business needs to have a complete change of strategy.
Apart from the fact that the facebook fan page was started as ‘that is what you do in business these days’ I am not doing a good job on the ‘social’ front. What I have turned it into is a place where I can contact customers quickly, at no cost, with what’s new in store and advising any specials. There is nothing social going on. So is it a bad thing that I’m not creating warm fuzzies with cutesy pics and sayings?
More from James:
Many businesses want to get involved in social media because they see it as a free means of marketing their company information. It is NOT!
Social media provides the unique opportunity to engage with mass audiences on a more personal level, which can help increase awareness, boost revenue, establish authority or create stronger customer loyalty.
Whoops, looks like I’m doing it all wrong. I am having real difficulty in thinking that my customers want to engage in a ‘more personal level’, or maybe it’s my own bias. Don’t get me wrong, Iike all the inspirational quotes and cute dog and cat pictures that I get from friends on my personal facebook page. I just think that there is enough without a shoe shop doing the same, I can’t see how it would establish my authority or promote customer loyalty. Or am I missing the boat? There must be a middle ground and the only way to find out is to test it.
The use of social media in small business will differ from industry to industry. I certainly don’t want to alienate my customers by posting too often, or not enough. So my plan of action over the next couple of weeks is to add a few little snippet’s here and there and try to be more engaging. Lets see if my valued customers want this sort of interaction by responding with posting comments and sharing.
click here for the small business help facebook page
This is so important! Trying to understand the how to’s as well as the why’s of social media as an arm of business – I feel like I’m missing something. So far, I have not seen how it builds business. I really look forward to your future posts about this and seeing how you find ways to use it constructively – or perhaps reasons to devote more time elsewhere.
Thanks. I took my first step today.. we have a kids TRYathlon up & down the country… so just gave a congrats out to all the kids involved…the hardest thing for me is a change in mindset… from a business perspective to a social
that is cool Amanda…are you asking them to post pics of their efforts? are you offering a prize? what are you asking them to do?
At the moment I’m just wanting some interaction, like a ‘like’ on a comment or more ‘people talking about this’… what I did do in January was to send out a newsletter to all my customers to ‘like my page’ to reveal a surprise… and which was a 20% discount voucher on all stock…. funnily enough not too many took me up on the 20% offer, but my fans went up 500% and they are still there 🙂