Top 5 Social Media Strategies for Small Businesses

1. Provide Useful Content
Whether you’re networking on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter or Google+, the best way to get people interested in your business is to provide content that is useful to THEM.

Promote events, news and tips that are relevant to your industry. In other words, only write posts that you’d want to read!

2. Data Mine with Twitter
Use Twitter to find people that are interested in the areas your business specializes in—just use their search function!

By following these accounts, you’ll be able to use Twitter to network much more specifically—and effectively.

3. Use LinkedIn to Build Your Professional Reputation
LinkedIn can be a fantastic way for you to build credibility in your industry. Their ‘recommendation’ feature allows supervisors, clients and others to post about your abilities and character on your profile.

This can help enhance your professional standing—especially in the eyes of those who haven’t met you yet. When you accomplish something particularly noteworthy, ask your supervisor or client to write a recommendation about it for you.

And if you have a service business, consider joining Angie’s List. Angie’s List provides unbiased reviews of service companies, and it’s free for businesses to join. A high ranking on Angie’s List can help you to attract lots of new business!

4. Follow the Competition
Chances are, your competitors are using the exact same social media sites as you are. Why not follow them, friend them, and add them to your network?

It’s hard to think of an easier way to track your rivals and stay abreast of the competition.

5. Don’t Spam!
When you go to a Chamber of Commerce or BNI meeting, do you wander about the room mindlessly repeating the name of your business and its phone number over and over again?

I’m guessing the answer is no—instead, you most likely take the time to introduce yourself and get to know other businesspeople in your industry. After all, that’s just common sense. Yet many businesspeople behave online in a way that they never would in person, and that can be a costly mistake.

There are people on the other end of those Facebook and Twitter accounts, and they don’t like reading spam any more than you do.

If you want to network successfully online, treat every interaction the same as you would a face-to-face encounter at an industry convention.