Eight Social Media sites that can help your business. Not all are for you.
Part 1 of 4 – Facebook & LinkedIn
There are many more than these eight social media sites but these eight have caught my attention and should every business person. Just understand that they aren’t for every business. I’ll explain in each. I’m also looking for comments to let me know what more they can each do and other social media sites we should be letting business people know about.
Facebook – The biggie!
With over a billion users worldwide, it is strong for most businesses if you can figure out what is the best way to get your potential clients to see your posts. I recommend getting your own business page rather than just your personal page. This will help you in several ways but the best is you will be treated like a business and there are some programs that are only for business pages (boost your posts and others). It also shows you are serious about your business.
With it’s ever changing matrixes to show people what they want to see (I find this annoying. They are making assumptions for us) it is sometimes hard if not extremely difficult to get your message to the people you are looking to get to.
With “Boost your posts” you can get to more of the people you are looking for. There is a cost but it is a minimal one if you choose wisely the criteria you are looking for.
Another great way to get to the people you want is to use “Custom Audience” groups. You do have to have their information (email address or phone numbers) to get to them but then it will make sure they get your message. Again, there is a cost to this but worth it.
Some free things you can do to get your message viewed is to encourage your customers to interact (write comments and such) or like your posts so they will continue to receive them. I was part of a group and responding most days to it but it slowly disappeared from the things I wanted to follow because I wasn’t liking or commenting enough. One thing to do to build this is to occasionally have either a contest or special content that your customers will want to view.
Another way to make sure your post is viewed is to tag people that would be interested in the post. This is especially great when these people are in a photo you are sharing as part of the post. You don’t always have to have people in the photo, though. Be careful not to overuse this as Facebook will mark you account as fraudulent and you’ll soon find that few people are seeing your posts.
Use videos on your posts. Two things to remember when using video on your posts is that if you use a YouTube video, it will be treated like any other post. You will want to use the Facebook sever to post them when sending them out. Understand though that using YouTube for your posts will get a bigger market that will look at your video, generally. I suggest posting to both Facebook and YouTube and then you will be found in even a bigger way.
Reposting messages can help too. Find messages, videos and photos that you believe in and then repost them. It helps the person you are reposting from and builds your reach as well. Remember to like the post that you post/repost or it won’t carry as much weight.
LinkedIn – Business help is now here!
This is big as well but is better for Business to Business. It is also great for making great relationships. If you follow them, they will be following you. Have both a businessperson page and a business page.
A spa will not be great on this page. You can be there but your clients won’t be looking for you there. A copier company or business coach (and others like them) will benefit greatly by being a member of LinkedIn.
Join groups in LinkedIn that 1) have your potential customers and comment when appropriate and 2) create a group if you can’t find one that is something in business that you are passionate about. Invite others to join when they are also passionate about this subject. Be sure that you know what you are talking about when commenting. You don’t want to be called out by someone in a group because you were trying to “look smart.” It is all right to have a different opinion. This can really help if you can articulate it well. Discussion brings in more people and should be encouraged.
Have others introduce you to prospects and be attentive to the post by those people you want to get the attention of. See what their passions in business are and if you don’t have the same hot passions, find other passions that you may share. A friend was trying to get in with a target client but didn’t share any business passions but found on Facebook that the prospect loved SciFi. They got together in a group on Facebook rather than on LinkedIn but now share many things on LinkedIn.
Also remember that this IS NOT Facebook or Twitter. Don’t post silly things, what you are doing for lunch or too much about your personal life. Keep it professional and make it relevant to other professionals.
Being a coach of a soccer team is great to share but scoring a goal in a game isn’t as much. The first shows leadership while the second is about bragging.
Repost as talked about with Facebook. It is a tremendous help here too.
Next week I’ll give information on Google + and YouTube. The remaining six social media sites I’ll talk about are: Twitter, Google +, InstaGram, Pinterest, Tumblr, and YouTube.