Social Media for Small Business
We thought a survey article on social media for small business would be a good chance to share some success stories of those that have really succeeded in the social media for small business game. Not only that we also wanted to offer some tips and dispel some rumors as well, because we fell upon some misleading information lately and we feel its our duty to clear up the facts. So lets take a look at social media for small business and just what it takes to get ahead of the competition.
Social Media for Small Business | The Google+ Mystery
Many businesses have already turned their noses up at Google+ and we understand why. Most small businesses already have their plates full trying to master other social sites like Twitter and Facebook, adding Google+ to the mix hardly sounds appealing. However whats important to understand is that Google+ is going to greatly impact search, so adding content to this network (blog posts, articles, videos, etc.) can only help you rise above your competitors. Circles is also a great resource for organizing your contacts and developing new campaigns for different demographics. That being said however, The New York TImes gave some misleading facts in their recent article on social media for small business and we wanted to clear that up.
Google+ has brand pages as well, but they work basically the same way as people pages, except they can be managed by multiple employees. That means companies have full access to Google+’s circles, which is a way of separating the people to whom you’re connected into different categories. As do individuals, businesses control the circles they set up — they can put any Google+ user they want into any of their circles, without prompting or approval from those users.
Whats misleading here is that the writer states that you can put any Google+ user into any of your Circles, however an important fact is that you can’t add people to your business page or Circles without the user first adding your business page to one of your Circles. So remember to use hashtags in your posts around trending topics to draw people to your page. Its also a great idea to follow others and our friends over at Social Media in 7 Minutes wrote a great article on just how to populate your Google+ Circles.
Social Media for Small Business | Businesses Doing it Right
We love the New York Times, so if we gave a correction for one of their posts, its only fair that we give them some love as well. Recently in another article on social media for small business, The New York Times gave some great examples of businesses that are doing social media right and we wanted to share one of those with you so that you might be able to mirror their efforts.
Example No. 1: Melrose Jewelers is a three-year-old, 70-employee, e-commerce retailer based in Los Angeles that sells luxury watches — Cartier, Rolex, Breitling — at an average cost of $4,000. Kyle Mitnick, director of marketing, said that since Melrose introduced its Facebook page, blog and YouTube channel last fall, the company has seen a 71-percent increase in year-over-year sales (and collected more than 100,000 Facebook “likes”).
“Facebook is a great forum for really conveying the trust of our business and helps us level the playing field in reaching younger, aspiring individuals who are technologically savvy,” said Mr. Mitnick. “Older customers, who have purchased luxury watches at stores, are a little bit hesitant to make a purchase that large online. With this group, our social presence — reviews by other Facebook users, posts and interaction with our fans — builds credibility.”
Melrose ran four Facebook campaigns simultaneously over a five-month period — including one in December that the company credits with attracting $100,000 in sales. “We came up with a concept of associating a watch with a person’s identity,” Mr. Mitnick said. “We have over 600 watches on our site. Customers will say, ‘I know I want a Breitling, but I don’t know which one.’” So the company created a quiz that asked a series of questions and — based on the answers — tied the person’s personality to a specific watch. The answers were posted on the quiz taker’s Facebook page. (Apparently I’m a Men’s Stainless Steel Blue Stick Dial Rolex Datejust. Who knew?)
When talking social media for small business we absolutely love hands on campaigns like these, it makes purchases into a game. I thought about doing this for a client who owns a hotel, to determine what personality type would fit best for what room. Getting creative with social media for small business never hurts, what do our readers think?
Image attribution: http://www.prgltd.co.uk/blog/author/lhunt/