If you’re a small business, you’ve probably heard how the use of social media platforms (e.g. Facebook or Twitter) are great places to both find new customers and stay connected to your existing ones. The trap that many businesses fall into is that once they’ve set up their Facebook page, or Twitter account, the novelty soon wears off and they update less and less frequently. It’s not sufficient merely to create your presence; you should update regularly. (Think of your Twitter account, for example, as a ‘radio station’ – it needs to keep ‘broadcasting’!) The following tips will help you and your business to make more contacts than ever before.

Whatever else you do, avoid the trap of ‘advertising’ on each and every post. Don’t keep posting sales pitches, for one thing it comes across as desperate (the very WORST impression you can give!), and for another, it will only serve to make your existing followers desert in droves.  Keep your posts which link to the business websites to a handful a week; two, perhaps three will be fine. Don’t forget, you can put a link to your website in the Twitter details on the right, and also in the info tab on your Facebook page. It’s there for all to see – don’t keep shoving it down peoples’ throats. If you’re concerned that having a social network account may give others the impression that your business is not totally professional, don’t be. It’s fine to give a little personal information, indeed the business whose social media account is more personal will always succeed over those that give the impression of a faceless corporation.  It’s also fine to post ‘off topic’; a few snippets of information regarding hobbies, facts about your location or even your musical taste or favourite television programme will provide your followers with a more personal touch; when visitors know it’s a human being they’re dealing with they’re more likely to find you trustworthy. Indeed, it may even encourage other talented people to your cause.

The next thing you should remember is the following reciprocal rule: promote others and you will be promoted yourself. You could, for example, post a tweet about an article or blog that you think is relevant to your business or that of your followers; or if you know of a local charity that could do with a plug, go ahead and post the link to their site! Aim to thank new followers personally; a direct message in Twitter is great but you can also answer queries publically using the @ symbol; for example :’yes @John we will be in your area soon’.  This latter approach will be valued by the customer but will also be visible to their followers. A recent Facebook addition was the ability to ‘tag’ another user in a status post in a similar manner, therefore the same technique can be applied there too.

Both Twitter and Facebook are great for posting testimonials; these have more impact if they do not come from the business itself so one method could be to offer something to your followers for posting such testimonials to promote your business. Offer a freebie, or a discount on a purchase, and advertise this to your followers. (Remember the earlier rule however; don’t OVER-push this method and avoid tweeting it every half-hour!)  When you check back over the following days, see what testimonials appear; if you get enough people posting good things then your business will start to gain followers and things will snowball from there.

You can also use Google Trends, or Twitter’s Trending topics to see what searches are most popular on a given day (note: Twitter allows regional Trending topics; selected countries or US cities can be chosen instead of the default Global option). If you find an appropriate topic, include it in your post.  The more relevant your post, the more chance messages from the business will be passed around.

Your business can grow your social media reach and create a sales funnel quickly by following these tips.

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