Why?

The whole point of Social Media is to be “social.”  If you aren’t going to take part in the social media community by using it often, there’s no point to having a profile at all.  Hundreds of thousands of businesses have signed up for a Twitter account or have went as far as to build a Facebook page.  They posted once, maybe twice in 2009, and now those accounts sit vacant.  No posts, barely any followers or likes, yet it’s still listed on their websites as if they actually use those social media profiles.  It just doesn’t look good!

Here’s the best advice that I can give any small business that thinks that social media is necessary for their business.  If you aren’t going to actively participate in social media by posting, tweeting, re-tweeting, posting updates, articles, photos or videos, just don’t sign up at all.  In my opinion it would be better for you to not have a social media profile at all, than to have one that shows your last post was 18 months ago.  This sends a message to your customers or clients that you’re not up-to-date or that you just signed up to say that you’re there.

If you are going to sign up for Facebook or Twitter, don’t overdo it.  If you don’t think you can handle posting on both regularly, integrate the two and post on Twitter so that it also feeds to Facebook.  Set a reminder on your calendar to remind yourself to post daily at least once.  Post news, updates, links to interesting news articles related to your industry, re-tweet something from someone you follow.  Do something everyday and you will slowly build a social media voice and your customers and clients will view your business as “in the now.

If you are the owner of a small business or a non-profit organization, one of the ways that you can do this is by building some portion of your website to interact with users.  Simple things like adding your Twitter or Facebook feed are great a start, or you can be a little more creative and build your own forum or social network.  If you are in the type of business that books appointments with your customers, let them do it on your website.  Do everything you can to get them to keep coming back to your website, this way you can show them what your business has to offer by adding fresh content like promotions and sales.

If you have a website that was put online a few years back and has not been touched since, it’s time to think of ways to get your customers to use the website and to take full advantage of the technology available.  No matter what type of business you are in, it’s likely that there are options in terms of user engagement on your website.  If you need some ideas or want help, Contact Us to discuss.  We love working with clients to help them get the most out of their online advertising dollars.