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Are you making the
best business use
of ‘social’ media?
Embracing Social Media is an important marketing element
that can open up new opportunities to small businesses. But
with so many platforms, which is the best route to take?
»»Since, the launch of
smart phones and tablets,
ease of access to free Wi-Fi
hotspots and faster broadband
connection, accessing social
media platforms is now much
easier and quicker.
Tradespeople are
increasingly turning to social
media sites to reach more
customers and with reports
suggesting that more than 60
percent of Facebook users
sign in daily, 80 percent
of consumers are more
inclined to buy because of
brand presence on social
media - and the appeal of free
advertising, then it has to be
a consideration for any small
business.
The list of social media sites
is vast, with many of the sites
now household brand names;
Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin,
Pinterest and Instagram are
free to access and manage.
So, where do you start?
Firstly, social media is just
another way of marketing your
business and needs a strategic
approach to ensure that you
reach your target audience
successfully. Establishing goals
and objectives of why you
want to use social media will
enable you to choose the best
platform for your business.
Choosing the best social
media platform for your
company can be difficult, so it
makes sense for businesses to
research the topic thoroughly
first.
The internet has a wealth
of information on social
media marketing, from tips
to statistics; so as long as you
understand the needs of your
customers, you should be able
to gather information to help
you choose the best sites to
attract customers.
For example - a report
produced by a US based
research company, suggested
in 2013, suggested that
Facebook had a surprising
increase in the number of
users 65+, up to 45percent
and that Pinterest is now
more popular than Twitter
and more likely be used by
women.
This type of statistical
information can help you
decide the best way of using
one or more social media sites
and promote your services
accordingly.
Plan what you
want to share!
What will your customers
find interesting about your
business? Blogs and discussion
groups are a good way to
interact with customers and
will help show a human side
to your business (Twitter and
Tumblr, can be good avenues
for this).
If you have access to a
smart phone, you will have
the luxury of being able to
use the mobile technology to
record, store and share images
of installations from start to
finish. Sharing images and
commenting on the way the
work is progressing, or how
problems can be overcome,
is again a great opportunity
to show your abilities as a
tradesperson.
How to get started
Facebook is undoubtedly
the most popular mainstream
social media site in the UK and
although recent reports record
a drop in overall users in the
last 12 months, the site still has
more than 31 million UK users
and 1.23 bn world-wide.
Creating a page is
relatively straightforward and
completely free and once
done, you can search people
using contacts from your
existing e-mail accounts to
‘like’ your page. Every time you
then post information on your
page, if automatically appear
on their newsfeed for all their
‘friends’ to see.
Utilising images taken from
your smart phone allows
you to access your company
Facebook page quickly and
you can make posts during
the course of the day. There
are other opportunities
on Facebook to grow your
company page, and for a small
daily fee you could target a
specific audience to like your
page.
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Twitter - with a growing
15million Users - again is a great
way of promoting your business.
Set up is quick and easy and
once your account is live, it is
worth considering using an online tool: www.followerwonk.
com to help search for local
contacts. Local newspapers,
Chamber of Commence
directory and trade magazines
are also a useful source to
generate follows. Twitter, works
by tweeting regularly to grow
your profile and presence,
people then choose to follow
you and are able to construct
your messages towards your
followers, even including your
own customers.
And lastly, Google Plus
Business Page is a fantastic
way of bumping up your
business to profile higher on
the search engines of ‘Google’
for local search results. Signing
up for a Google account and
then registering your company
for a Google Plus page, will
allow you to find people and
add them to your circles.
Point worth noting!
As a tradesperson, social
media is a fantastic tool for
managing your reputation
and many sites such as
touchlocal.com, welovelocal.
com, ratedpeople.com and
bview.co.uk are a great way
to get existing customers to
review and recommend your
services.