Is your small business taking advantage of social media?
Facebook. Myspace. Digg. Angie’s List. If you are a small business owner and have never heard of these four Web sites before, I am afraid I have some bad news. You are missing out on potential, free exposure.
Social Media is changing the way businesses are understanding their customers. If your business limits its online presence to advertising banners or organic search, it’s missing out. Social Networking sites such as Myspace or Del.icio.us are helping your customers connect with similar users of your products and services, and sharing their experiences. Popular social networks have become more than just playgrounds for millenials. Did you know over 30% of Facebook’s users are over the age of 35?
Twitter, a kind of micro-blogging platform, has changed the way online users communicate and share their lives - and wants and needs. Prominent businesses such as Zappos.com and even CNN use Twitter to advertise sales to it’s key demographic, or share top news stories that click through to full-featured articles (filled with those ad’s you spent last years budget on).
Then there is the new generation of reviews and ratings given by your actual customers. If you are a restaurant owner, or perhaps own a service business such as landscaping or auto repair, there is a whole new set of online venues you need to listen to. Yelp.com, a popular user-review site, allows customers to rate and score restaurants and businesses in their home towns. What is happening here is potential customers are going to the Web first to see what others are saying about your business before they pick the place to take mom on Mother’s Day. According to Yelp, the site had an average of 9 million unique visitors in March 2008.
What you need to know here is that when exploring what changes you need to make to draw more traffic or business, it is important to harness the power of social media instead of sinking all your time into AdWords or banner ads on your local newspapers’ site. By setting up a Twitter or MySpace account and advertising sales, offering discounts to loyal fans via quick text messages or posts, or listening to what customers are saying or ‘tagging’ on sites like Digg.com, you are actually interacting with your customers. Instead of simply advertising and watching imaginary click-throughs, you are actually participating.
And the best part about social media is creating accounts and interacting with your customers usually costs you no money at all and you can take their input directly back to your business.
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