Are Social Media Strategies Important for Small Businesses?

In short, yes, social media strategies are important for small businesses. Social media is all about getting your name out through real-time interaction with your customers. Unfortunately, if you don’t do it correctly, you can negatively affect your reputation and sales.

Some business owners think opening a few social media pages and sending out occasional posts is enough. It’s not. Far from it. If you’re serious about developing a strong social media presence for your business (which we highly suggest, by the way), you can’t just go about it haphazardly. You have to have a plan. Following are the basic steps of “going social.”

Before you can send any posts, you have to set up your accounts. Don’t rush. You may need to set up verified accounts since you’re creating business, rather than personal, accounts. Verified pages look more professional and let customers know you are real and trustworthy.

Facebook is a good starting place. The biggest mistake most people make is using a general Facebook page for their businesses. This is not only a bad idea, but it’s actually against Facebook’s regulations. They have divided their pages up into groups. Your page needs to be a “business” page, not a “person” page. If you use the page designated for people, Facebook will deactivate your account when they become aware of your violation. At that point, there is nothing you can do to get your fans back. Not even a professional company like us can get your old account back. All your work will be lost, so take the time to set up your account correctly.

After you’ve created your accounts, you’ll want to make sure they are all linked together. It can be time consuming to spend all day updating your various pages, but you won’t have to do this if they are linked. Set them up so your Facebook posts go automatically to Twitter and your Twitter posts go automatically to LinkedIn. Also, be sure to make it easy for people to find all of your accounts. Each account should have noticeable links to your others. You want people to have as much access to you as possible.

Your social media accounts should be integrated into your actual website. This is a good way to get more friends and followers because people will visit your site and see that you have social media accounts. Customers like to see what businesses are up to, and they like to have the chance to interact with them on a personal level.

You’ll love to see how your business accounts grow, but there may come a point when your pages’ growth plateaus. This can be very frustrating, but it doesn’t mean your pages can’t grow any further. To get over this hump, offer special promotions for your fans. It could be a giveaway or a discount. Fans really appreciate things like this and it can get your activity going again.

These are just a few of the basic steps you should take in your social media strategy. There are many more that all business owners should take, regardless of size.

Don’t go about this strategy incorrectly. Consult with Farin Innovations – a Miami website design and website development company. We have been helping companies “go social” for years. Give us a call or send a quick message, and you’ll be on your way to building your business’ success!