Audience
leans toward younger, broad interests
Best Used For
stories, photos, links, offers
Engagement
photos get 53% more likes, 100% more comments and 84% more click throughs
Audience
diverse, mobile, b2c & b2b
Best Used For
140 chars, news, announcements, instant specials, links, thoughts about industry
Engagement
users respond, favorite and retweet their favorite content. Hashtags can generate a longer conversation (like chat).
Audience
smaller audience, but a tech savvy one
Best Used For
very much like fb, images, links, stories, announcements. you can have business pages, communities, all linking back to your website.
Engagement
content can be +1’d, shared, commented on. content shared from website aids in SEO.
Audience
women, artists, travelers.
Best Used For
images of products, travel, food, buildings, etc.
Engagement
pinboards are created and images shared among groups. content links lead back to your website.
Audience
business professionals
Best Used For
company news, announcements. publish articles for mass consumption.
Engagement
content can be liked and shared, can be targeted with advertising.
Audience
mobile crowd, on the go shoppers, trends younger.
Best Used For
Yelp, Urban spoon great for reviews (popular with restaurants). foursquare great for retailers that want loyal customers and will reward them.
Engagement
crowd sourcing product reviews, engage with groups of people.
One of the most important things small businesses fail to do with social media is be consistent and responsive. Social Media is a great way to spread the word about new products, to pick up new interest in your company and generally become part of your customers lives. The problem is it doesn’t just work “out of the box”.
A social community is a living thing. It is not your typical advertising medium, in fact it isn’t really advertising at all. You cannot simply push out your messaging and expect results. Social media is engagement with your customer. Not only do you have to speak, you have to listen. You need to hear what the community needs and respond with a new product or service (or simply let them know that you can help.) You engage with the audience by asking questions, telling them about events, sharing photos or video of an event. It’s like each follower is a lifetime friend! The goal of social media is to make you transparent, to create a face for your business.
The obvious problem this creates is the time requirement. You must be consistent, otherwise the community will lose interest and move on to another more active community. Often small business simply assigns a teenager who works for them to do the posting, and in many cases that might be good. Unfortunately, that teenager might not have the business sense to nurture relationships and to properly handle issues that might come up in the community. That’s right, you might get conflict when you open yourself up. Keep in mind though, conflict is out there; but isn’t it better to be engaged with it and have the opportunity to resolve it?
VS Productions can manage your community professionally. We will work with you to keep a steady flow of engagement on your social media presence. Often we can set up tools that allow you or employees to participate when you have time, but you can rely on us to build the community and keep it engaged.
Don’t let the time commitment scare you away from Social Media. It is a powerful toolset in building and retaining a customer base that will serve you well if you don’t let it master you! Give us a call today to get started!