So we all (or a lot of us anyway) have already engaged in social media of one kind or another. You perhaps use Facebook or maybe a Linked in or twitter account or perhaps written or read a blog article. Well this is all grouped together as “Social Media”. Anything that is partly made up of user input or content will fall into this group. So if you think you are a complete stranger to the Social Media Scene, think again.

Integrating your Social Media Skills into Business

First things First – As a business owner your current knowledge of blogging and user driven content is a solid place to start, but remember, the perhaps slightly flippant comment made on your mate’s wall after a few in the pub is NOT the content you want potential clients reading about the following Monday morning so keep personal and business in two completely different camps.

A few Practical Pointers

Start Small

Choose a single platform (Facebook, twitter or perhaps a blog) to start with and build a solid content level and reputation up with that first,  having several  “Non-Active” platforms is worse than having nothing at all.

Make your content worthy

Don’t waffle; make your updates and posts mean something to your followers/readers. That might be industry specific information or maybe a company update or even an offer that you are running but make it so it catches the eye and even if it not exactly what they are after makes them take a look anyway. Waffle content is out, they will drop you like a hot potato if you fill their wall or feed with “how you have bought a new kettle for the office”.

Interesting, Eye Catching, an Offer they just can’t refuse.

Keeping things regular

Once a month is pointless! Depending on which platform you have gone for kind of dictates the pace a bit.

Tweets are very limiting in character space so you should be looking to tweet at least once a day with maybe a few links of interest to keep things interesting.

Blog or News Articles once or twice a week with a min of 400-500 words if the topic warrants it but keep it regular and don’t forget your keywords.

Facebook, ideally you should be looking to drop in a status update about three times a week with offers, polls and images (perhaps new products or show cases). I wrote an article in 2010 on how status updates benefit a small business.

Hopefully that is enough to get you started on the road to what could be your best business marketing strategy yet.

Keep you eyes peeled as I shall be putting another article up on Social Media soon.