Using social media to grow your business

Many business owners neglect social media because they a) don’t have time for it or b) don’t understand how to use it. However, once it’s mastered, it can really help you get your business to where you want it to be. Here are some basic tips on how to be social media savvy:

1) Do your research. Think about who your target audience is and then check out what they’re doing online: what sites and blogs do they visit? Who do they interact with on Twitter and what do they tweet about? What are they talking about on industry forums? Simply doing this will give you some food for thought on what you should be offering. 

2) Be selective. There are so many social media networking tools available to you for free, that it’s easy to get carried away and spread yourself too thinly. My advice is to select a key few that you can easily manage, and to subscribe to a social media dashboard like Hootsuite that enables you to update sites like your Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn easily and simultaneously!

3) Engage proactively. Don’t just sign up, follow a few contacts and expect them to be interested in you. You need to engage with people and businesses by creating interesting dialogue and offering content that’s relevant and valuable.

4) Avoid the hard sell. The amount of direct messages and tweets I receive demanding ‘CLICK HERE!’ or ‘BUY THIS NOW!’ is quite staggering, and it’s really off-putting. By creating dynamic conversations and interesting content and sharing ideas and relevant news, you’ll be far more interesting to your audience and much more likely to convert them to a qualified lead.

5) Keep it real. Some automation is fine, such as using a social media platform like Hootsuite to schedule updates. What is not fine is assuming that you can automate what should be genuine interaction with someone; so social media spam is a big no-no! 

So, which sites should you go for? There are *loads* out there, but I believe in keeping it simple (see point 2). We use Hootsuite to sync key social media account and keep things super-efficient. As a starting point, use Twitter to share bitesize chunks of engaging content and find out what others in your industry are saying, Facebook to interact on multiple levels such as discussions, polls and video and LinkedIn to enhance your business credibility through professional online networking. That’s not to say that other great social networking tools such as YouTube and GooglePlus should be overlooked, though.