Social Media Week – Day 5 (for small businesses)

Putting it all together!

Social media is a massive free asset that all business types can benefit from. Over Social Media Week we have covered some of the important platforms that should be your first social media stops (Facebook, Twitter & LinkedIn). Once you have an understanding of each of these platforms it is time to consolidate and start getting results. Small businesses need to use each of these platforms together and have develop a focused marketing approach! This week I asked Franziska Iseli-Hall from Basic Bananas a few questions. Basic Bananas is a company that does Sales and Marketing for small businesses – here’s what she had to say.

How important is branding consistency across the major social media platforms?

“Branding consistency across all your social media platform is one of the most important things you need to consider when using social media or any other marketing tools. Consistency not only helps you and your business be perceived as professional, it will also help you build trust with your customers and clients as they know what to expect.” Franziska says.

How speak to their different social media audiences (Facebook Vs Twitter Vs LinkedIn) i.e. How should a business behave differently across different social media platforms?

According to Franziska “The most important thing across all social media platforms is to add value, to bee seen as the expert and build relationships. LinkedIn is used a bit more as a professional tool and I would probably not post stuff like ‘I just ate pizza for dinner and feel sick’ on there.”

What are your top 5 social marketing tips?

1. Give as much value as possible
2. Aim to build relationships
3. Interact with your audience (when somebody posts on your wall, reply and encourage people to interact).
4. Be ‘personable’- show your personality, people want to know who you are
5. Comment on and ‘like’ other people’s fanpages, social media is very much ‘give give take’ rather than a ‘take take take’, if you want it to be successful

What are your social media sales tips?

“The #1 Tip: Don’t sell! Build relationships. We have a rule of thumb where we tell our clients to offer value 9 times and sell or promote your products or services 1 time, ie a ratio of 9 to 1 in favour of offering advice, giving tips etc.” Franziska says.

What is an example of a real world case study that is successful across a range of social media?

“There are hundreds of success stories of people using social media very effectively. A guy I read about recently is Max Goldberg who advocates for organic food. He started using social media very effectively and just recently made it into the New York times. Social Media has really helped him grow his profile.” Franziska says.

It is more important now than ever for small businesses to embrace social media. The growth of social media is among the highest worldwide. It is the new marketing realm. It is free and it is easy. To benefit from social media you do not need to be a computer genius. It is built for the common user so try it out. Start a Facebook business page, open a twitter account and join LinkedIn. Social media has already taken off in the USA and the UK – Australia is following in their steps.

It’s common sense!

Once you are connected you just need to think practically. What do your customers want? Add relevant info and value to their social media experience and gain a reputation as an expert in your industry.

There are no age restrictions!

• The 55+ audience grew a whopping 922.7% in 2009. [1]
• The 35+ demographic now represents more than 30% of the entire user base. [1]

If you do get into trouble and need some help you are in lick – the internet is the largest support network in the world… maybe even the universe. Ask questions and people will help you.

This is the final day of Social Media Week. We hope you have picked up some useful information, social media strategies and let go of the idea that “social media is a fad”. It is here to stay and it plays huge role in generating traffic to your website, your search engine rank (Google etc), your database, and builds your brand awareness. If you have any questions don’t hesitate to ask. The articles from this week will be available at our blog. Continue to tune in as we are always creating new content that is helpful for your small business!

[Links]
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Official website for Social Media Week
Inside Facebook

[Source]
[1] 2010 social media growth
[2]Facebook network visualized!

P.S. Can you tell we love !’s?