How you use social media for your business has a direct effect on your brands visibility and reputation. Using the social platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter is a way to increase engagement with your social community, and in turn that raises their awareness of your business.

Learning how to use social media involves tying it in with the rest of your marketing efforts. It’s is a great thing on its own – but – the real power is when you integrate it with everything else.

➤ Take advantage of the interactive characteristics. Openly communicate with your customers and provide useful information.

➤ Pay attention to what they are saying and dare to be different. Use unusual methods to stand out from the rest.

The analytics available on several different social media platforms should be scrutinized. There is much to be learned from how others are responding to your marketing efforts including click-throughs and feedback.

Organize this information and share the results with your team. It isn’t just the marketing team affected by the statics captured. As well, there is no need to wait to run a campaign before pouring over the analytics.

Before setting up a social media advertising campaign, set goals and anticipated results. Pay close attention and check the variables. Tweak one thing at a time and do several split-tests. Measure, compare, evaluate, and continuously re-assess.

Do This Before You Start Using Social Media for Your Small Business

Prior to getting started with the social media platforms take the time to consider what particular strategies do each of the networks offer and what impact will they have on your business. You need to know who your demographic is that you want to target and you need to know where they are hanging out?

Evaluate your advertising budget. Some forms of advertising on social networks can be pricy depending on what your goals are.

Social networking may sound simple but each platform has its nuances and the learning curve is steep. You might decide to pick one, learn it well before you end up getting pulled at all ends and then have time for nothing.

Don’t fool yourself into thinking social sites will only take a few minutes of your time and still expect to be effective. Social media management requires time and expertise. When you do pick someone to handle your social networking needs, be certain you want them to be the one representing your company. It isn’t enough to have a savvy computer geek, you need a geek with an engaging personality. Whoever you choose to manage your social media marketing will be the “Face” of your company.

Keep an eye on your social sites. It is a great platform to promote your business and its a place where customers and former employees can go to complain. You don’t need a negative comment from a customer sitting unchecked and unaddressed for a few days, or even a few hours.

When setting up your pages it’s good to be a little personal. That is the point of ‘Social’ Media. Because you are a small business owner you get to interact more closely to your client base in a way the “Big Boys” cannot. This is to your advantage. You can post pictures of your family and chat about things that will endear you to your customer. This doesn’t mean Tweeting about your bowel movements or your dessert selection at the drive-thru unless this is directly relevant to your business. Candid shots from the Christmas office party probably shouldn’t be marked ‘public’ if you post them at all.

Posting business promotional videos that are warm and welcoming are a good way to introduce people to your business. Social media platforms can be a very powerful way to brand your company and to effectively advertise to your target market.