Market and Investment

Social media is an increasingly popular tool for businesses and entrepreneurs to gain exposure and to drive traffic to their Website. From “mom and pop shops” to major corporations, businesses of all sizes are hiring specialists to handle their online networking strategy.

Social media is here to stay. Why? Social media allows businesses and small business owners to directly interact with their current and potential customers and colleagues and to use these interactions to gain exposure and gather expert information from a variety of trusted sources.

When you directly interact with customers you are able to “hear” what they are thinking, handle minor problems before they turn into major ones and to make them active participants in how your business develops and grows. Your colleagues and business partners have valuable connections and are ongoing resources if you have questions on vendors, next business steps, or are seeking an expert opinion, even if it is from someone previously considered unreachable.

There are an ever-increasing number of social sites available to you and it would be impossible (and unnecessary) for you to be active on all of them. To start off with it is only necessary to be active on three: LinkedIn (professional), Facebook (social) and Twitter (immediate). If you still feel overwhelmed, just get involved on LinkedIn and Twitter for now. You can add Facebook later.

Sign up for Twitter and LinkedIn, using your real name as your screen name. Use a professional photo for your “avatar” (the thumbnail that appears by your profile). If you have email that is compatible with these two sites, do allow it to search them on the sites for you. You can always deselect someone if you don’t want to interact.

Write a complete and compelling profile bio. Be authentic in who you are and don’t skimp on this part. People want and need to know who you are in order to have any interest in following you. As appropriate, include a graphically appealing background. Twitter’s is pretty easily manipulated and there are plenty of free sites that will allow you to tinker with it yourself or hire a graphic designer for this small project. Always add your Web site or blog URL to your profile!

Now you have to start interacting! Twitter offers a “search” box now and you can type in keywords like “entrepreneur” to find discussions, and thus people, to follow and contribute to. There is also a great site called WeFollow.com that allows you to do a search by terms that people have identified themselves with (”artist”, “small business”, etc.). On LinkedIn and Facebook, you can join groups and on Facebook there are fan pages for lots of famous people, from musicians to business people. Offer your opinions and resources. Get involved!

People want authentic interactions on social media sites. If you are selling services or products, don’t be aggressive in your sales approach! Everyone can identify who these folks are and you will begin to lose followers and contacts. Remember the point of being on social networking is to provide value and build loyalty and connections.

Sometimes you will get the opportunity to meet some of your contacts in persons. Facebook and LinkedIn list events in your area and Twitter has what are called “tweetups” which are live gatherings of Twitter members, generally around a topic or interest. Interacting in person builds a stronger connection than just online.

Social networking is more time-consuming in the beginning as you get set up but you should not be intimidated by it. A few minutes each day once you get started should be plenty to build your online presence and expand your reach to new customers and new experts. Go get started!