social media marketing for small businesses · social media marketing for small businesses ... this...

©2010, ACT ONE CREATIVE, LLC

18 Low AvenueConcord, NH 03301 p: 603.226.3311 f: 603.226.9393www.actonecreative.com

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING FOR SMALL BUSINESSES

What is Social Media?

Social Media websites bring millions of people together to interact and share ideas, news, opinions, beliefs, interests, activities, and events. When you use social media, it is as if you’ve created your own little soapbox on which to stand and say proudly to the world, “Here is what’s important to me!” ...and to ask, “What’s important to you?” In other words, Social Media is about connecting and communicating.

What Social Media Websites Should I Use for My Business?

There are more than 200 Social Media websites out there. They include networking sites, bookmarking sites, file sharing sites, review and rating sites, forums, and 3D networks (virtual worlds). Each one provides a unique kind of social communication. Act One Creative will help you evaluate the specific marketing needs of your business, help you choose which Social Media sites will work best for those needs, assist you in setting up the sites, and train you in how to use them effectively.

Popular Social Media Sites Include:

Facebook – A social community site open to anybody age 13+; users maintain a Personal Profile and/or a Business Page and connect to other “friends” through posts, messages, photographs, video, and games.

Twitter – A micro-blogging site; users “tweet” about daily activities in 140 characters or less.

LinkedIn – A social community site for business professionals; users maintain a Profile and communicate to business connections for advice, work opportunities, job openings, referrals, etc.

StumbledUpon – An online community; users rate and share websites, photos, articles and videos. The user can either add a website to their favorites, dislike it, or continue browsing.

Delicious – A social bookmarking service; users log in and share their favorite websites with each other.

Wordpress – A blogging site; users have a certain degree of customization, contains features for search engine optimization, allows multiple authors, etc.

YouTube – A video sharing website; users can upload, rate and share videos with each other.

Flickr – A photo and video sharing site; allows users to upload, edit and organize material. Many Twitter users and bloggers use this site to upload and store images.

Digg – A social news site for users to share articles, photos, etc. on the internet. Users also rate each link by either “digging it” (liking) or “burying it” (disliking).

act one creative, llc 18 Low Avenue • Concord, NH 03301 • 603.226.3311 • www.actonecreative.com

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What is a “Business Page,” and Do I Really Need One?

Just like in banking, Social Media websites can broken up into different accounts, or “Profiles.” Facebook requires keeping your Personal Profile and Business Page separate. You do not have to maintain a Personal Profile on facebook, however you are required to have one to maintain a Business Page.

Statistics show that consumers are more likely to purchase a product if they feel confident that they are in good hands and if they have a personal connection to a business, especially one they know to be reliable and honest. This is why a Social Media Business Page is the perfect complement to your marketing program. Social Media provides a less formal, more personal, way to communicate — ultimately building relationships between your business and your clients. This combined marketing approach has been proven to develop customer loyalty and usually translates into more targeted purchases and sales over time.

What Should I Write About in My Posts?

The initial goal of any Social Media marketing program, which cannot be overstated, is to build positive and trustworthy relationships with your existing and potential clients. You can do this by consistently sharing useful, credible information on topics of interest to your consumers, providing some degree of entertainment (quotes, photos, videos, human interest comments), and by responding to their questions and concerns.

Social Media sites are ideal for all of these things, and they don’t cost you anything but a little of your time.They provide the perfect systems for dialogue and feedback regarding industry issues. And they enable you to discuss, in context, what services or products your business has to offer.

Over time, and in a variety of ways, your Business Page posts should demonstrate that your business is legitimate; your personnel are qualified, approachable and friendly; your services are excellent; your products are useful and well made; you are knowledgeable about your industry; you are open to feedback, responsive to concerns, and more.

The bottom line is that your Social Media marketing program should reinforce that you are an excellent choice for a consumer transaction. Posts should be positive, persuasive, well informed, and contain content that is of interest to your potential consumers.

Some Popular Posting Categories for Business Pages Include:

1. Teaching Tools — Build credibility, knowledge and interest about your company and your field; establish yourself as a specialist

• Informational articles and websites about your industry, products or services

• Reviews

• Tutorials

• Techniques

2. Inspiration and Appropriate Humor — Build a personal relationship with clients and make your company seem more approachable

• Quotes

• Jokes

• Interactive websites

• Humorous photos


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3. Company Promotion — Keep the clients involved by providing updates about the company

• Announcements and updates

• Press releases

• Sales and discounts

• Upcoming events (photo shoots, staff presentations, classes, annual retreats, fundraisers, events, etc)

4. Customer Service — Provide a format in which to solicit feedback about your business. Respond to questions and concerns.

• Ask for feedback about products or services

• Correct inaccurate information about your products or services

• Respond to complaints

Do I Need to Provide Posting Guidelines for my Employees?

This depends. It is true that your online voice needs to be consistent and should positively reinforce your branding and marketing message. If more than one employee is posting to your Business Page, it can be helpful to provide guidelines for everyone. Typically those guidelines* would include:

1. A clearly stated purpose, including objectives.

2. A statement of trust and empowerment. Your employees are ambassadors for the company. Their comments should not be micromanaged, edited or deleted without just cause. Guidelines are meant to help, not hinder, their Social Media involvement. Transparency (not censorship) fosters meaningful communication.

3. A statement of personal responsibility. When employees are online participating in any form of Social Media, no matter what kind, if they are speaking on an industry related topic, they will be perceived as representing the company and should maintain their professionalism.

4. A statement of disclosure. If employees are online in industry related discussions, they should identify themselves as an employee of the company or clearly state that they are expressing a personal opinion and do not represent the company.

5. Communication guidelines. This should include business confidentiality and liability guidelines (Respond to comments quickly. Provide meaningful and accurate information. Be respectful. Share only approved company information. Always provide a link to the source when referencing other material.

6. A requirement to display respect for the audience. As a business voice it is important to represent the business well to potential consumers. Political correctness is critical. Personal insults, obscenity, inappropriate behavior (written, photos, videos) or anything outside of basic company policy is prohibited.

7. A requirement to follow copyright, fair use and financial disclosure laws.

8. A requirement to accept responsibility and correct mistakes promptly when errors are made.

*These guidelines are loosely drawn from Social Media Marketing for Dummies by Shiv Singh. For more detailed information and for other guideline resources, refer to pp.100-103.


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Why Should I Keep my Social Media Business Page Separate from my Personal Profile?

Personal Profiles are casual and informal, and can reveal a great deal about the user. This posting style is appropriate for your personal life and for friends, family, and people you know and trust. Posts to Personal Profiles often contain information that is not appropriate for a business relationship. Risks include:

1. Casual language and behavior (from yourself and from others posting responses to your comments) which can damage your professional reputation.

2. You can inadvertently compromise your personal safety (by listing home contact information, providing details about your daily habits, yourself, your family members and children, etc.).

3. Political or religious affiliations, relationship status or your state of health, etc. can affect your professional life either negatively or positively depending on the audience.

4. It is difficult to maintain a separation between your private and work life.

What if My Friends Contact Me and Want to Correspond Using my Social Media Business Page?

It is not uncommon to have some of your followers/fans forget they’re on a company Page when they comment on something you post, especially if they know you as a friend. Since conversation is welcome on Social Media sites, encourage the interaction as long as it stays on topic. When topics are unrelated, politely remind those people to contact you through your Personal Profile instead.

Time Management RecommendationsIn order for your Business Page to be beneficial and successful, you have to post on a regular basis.

Unlike your website, your Page needs to be updated to keep a healthy fan base. It is not necessary to make multiple posts in one day, or even post 7 days a week. You want to find a good balance that works for your business and fits into your lifestyle. Posting 2-4 times a week is ideal; it keeps your Business Page active without being overwhelming to your fans. If that still feels overwhelming, do not despair. Post once a week and over time you can still reap many of the benefits of a Social Media marketing program.

Time Management Tips

1. Set up a pre-scheduled limited time to work on your Social Media. Use a timer if it helps. Many clients find that they routinely post to their Page in 15 minutes or less.

2. Keep a folder or use online tools (below) to keep track of interesting ideas, topics, articles, websites, etc. that you want to use for later posts. Some helpful tools for this are:

• www.stumbleupon.com • www.designfloat.com • www.delicious.com

3. Sign up for industry related e-newsletters and articles to be delivered to your email and use RSS feeds or use other tools such as Google Alerts to locate articles and other posts based on key industry terms, or to find mentions of your business online. These tools will save you hours of time and allow you to respond to issues quickly.

4. Only work on your Business Page during company time; try not to surf into your Personal Profile while at work. Conversely, try not to surf into your Business Page on your free time. Keeping scheduled time for each Page helps focus you (and your staff) on the task at hand, and keeps a distinct separation between the two.


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Facebook Business Page Guidelines

Facebook Business Pages differ from Personal Profiles in many of the standard default settings. For example, under the INFO tab are different fields that list such things as your website, hours of operation, parking, etc.

You can also customize the main tabs at the top of the page by clicking on the + button at the far right. Under “Search Available Tabs” click on “Extended Info.” This will allow you to select additional tabs to add to your Page including options for photos, links, discussions, upcoming events, reviews, videos, etc. Which tabs you choose to activate will depend on what kind of business you have. The “Extended Info” option also allows the user to customize the Headers, Sections, and Information boxes in the Page.

Facebook Page Appearance and Tabs Definitions

Profile Photo –The first visual seen by the fans. Most companies use their logo, or a piece of their logo. Keep in mind that your Profile photo will mostly be viewed at thumbnail size, and should be both clean and bold.

Quote Box – Underneath your Profile photo is a small information box to add a little diddy like your company slogan, short bio, mission statement, etc. Use this space to effectively reinforce your core marketing message.

Insights – This box can only be seen by Administrators of your page. The top number (post quality) lets you know how engaging and important your posts were to your fans for the past 7 days. The bottom number (fan interactions) counts how many times a fan has written on your wall or actively participated with a post over a 7 day period. The higher the two numbers are, the better.

Wall Tab – This is where you and your company can interact with your fans through posts. (Note: You can control your Fan Permissions (their ability to post) by editing the Wall Tab Settings in your Business Profile.)

Info Tab – Provides a little background and other relevant information about your company (hours, parking, contact information, website, etc.).

Gallery Tab – Add a few of your best photos from your website (WITH watermarks if they are proprietary). You want to highlight your work, but remember to not put too many photos up. You want to use Facebook as a teaser, and drive business to your website or encourage visitors to meet with you in person. Other photos, like headshots of the staff with bios or interior shots of the office, are also good to add to your Facebook page. Make sure to let people know if you are labeling or “tagging” them in a Facebook photo. Some people do not want to be identified in this way. Do not post and label photos without permission as some people do not want to be identified on the web. NOTE: When you post content on Facebook, you grant Facebook permission to use that content. That means it may be accessible to everyone on the web. Copyright your photos and post accordingly. For more information, consult http://www.facebook.com/terms.php.

Discussions Tab – Starting a discussion can be very beneficial to your business if you are able to maintain the dialogue. Discussion topics should be relevant to your business, and beneficial to your fans. Discussions lead to repeat visits, keep clients interacting with your business (building relationships and customer loyalty), and they are an easy way to gather feedback and learn more about your client base.

Links Tab – A collection of website links to articles, images, etc that are posted by you. This area will populate automatically with any posts you make to your wall that include a link. You can also add links manually to the links page.


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Events Tab – Got an upcoming party, seminar or class? Post an event about it under this section and invite fans to attend. You can also post a small blurb about it, including the time, location, etc.

Notes Tab – This tab is very similar to your wall, but only the Admins can post topics. Fans can comment, but cannot start topics of their own.

What URL Does Facebook Use for my Business Page?

When you sign up for your new Business Page, Facebook automatically assigns a website address to your account. However, this address will not make any sense, and is not personalized.

Facebook will not allow you to personalize your web address until your Page has 100 followers. Until then, your web address will be a jumbled assortment of numbers, letters, and characters (www.Facebook.com/home.php#/pages/Concord-NH/ ActOneCreative/ 156112180817?ref=ts). Once you have reached 100 followers however, you are able to customize your web address (www.Facebook.com/actonecreative).

As soon as you are able, make an effort to promote your Facebook Business Page and get as many people to follow as you can!

How Do I Access my Business Page?

There is no special password you need to access your Business Page. All you have to do is visit the page.

To easily find your Business Page, log into your personal Facebook page to start. In Facebook, (at the top of the page) is a search field. In that field, type in the name of your Business Page (example: “Act One Creative”). That should take you directly to your Business Page. Once there, you will have full access and be able make changes and additions as you wish.

How Do I Edit my Business Page?

Under the Profile photo, click on the “edit page” button. This button is only accessible to page Administrators (or Admins). It allows you to easily manage the settings, promote your page, and see who is visiting your Page. It also allows you to turn fan comments and feedback on and off.

What is an Administrator (Admin)?

An Admin is someone who has complete access to your Business Page; they are able to manage and change anything about the Page and its settings. Adding an Admin to your Business Page is very easy, however you cannot add someone unless they are already friends with you through your Personal Profile. Simply go through your friends list and select who you wish to have access to the Page. Admins are the only users who can update your Business Page status. Non-Admins will be posting through their Personal Profile.

Starting a Twitter Business Profile

All Twitter Profiles are created equal; there is no special account or template to distinguish a Business Profile from a Personal Profile. As a Business Profile though, you want to choose a username that will be relevant to the company. Don’t forget that Twitter does not allow spaces or special characters to appear in your user name, but underscores are allowed in place of spaces.

After signup, Twitter automatically gives you a personal address to easily access your Profile. Your Business Profile address will be www.Twitter.com/(username).


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Twitter Profile Appearance and Tabs

Profile Photo — Because Twitter doesn’t have photo galleries, your choice of a Profile photo should be very strategic. Most companies use their logo or a piece of their logo. Keep in mind that your Profile photo will mostly be viewed at thumbnail size, and should be both clean and bold.

Bio — Keep it as short and direct as possible, because Twitter limits the amount of characters used to 160 total (including spaces and punctuation).

Background / Color Scheme — Your Profile appearance should stay within the theme of your company. Choose company colors, and design a background that relates to your identity. Choose your colors carefully; you want to maintain readability of your Profile and highlight the live links with clarity.

Following — This is how many Profiles you are watching.

Follower — This is how many users are following your Profile.

List — A group of Profiles, categorized and organized by you. You can make a list of family members, Profiles related to art, or a list of your favorite users. The lists can be public, to allow other users to follow your list, or private.

Listed — All the lists, created by other Twitter users, that contain your Profile. The more lists on which your Profile appears, the better.

Tweets — A running count of how many tweets (or posts) on your Profile.

Favorites — list of your favorite tweets from other users. (You can add tweets by adding an asterick, which can be turned on by you and your Administrators. The tweets with this ranking will be listed here on your Profile.)

@(your username) —A public message directed at specific users. By adding the “@” symbol in front of a username, you are talking directly to that person. This sends a notification to their Profile that they have a public message. The message also appears on their wall.

Direct Messages — A private message between two people through Twitter.

Trending Topics — Popular subjects that users on Twitter are chatting about. Make sure to add “#” (hash) to the start of a word or phrase if you wish to participate. The hash allows words and phrases to be indexed within the Twitter world, and makes your tweet searchable.

Twitter definitions for beginners

@(username) — Publicly post a direct message to another user

#(word or phrase) — Allows the term to be found in browser searches for specific topics

RT — to “retweet” or to pass along a tweet. To correctly retweet, add “RT @(username)” to the beginning of the post, to give proper recognition to the author.

How Do I Access my Twitter Business Profile?

Anybody can access your Twitter Business Profile, as long as they have the correct login information. You do not have to create special passwords or usernames, or add people to your account. Simply give the login name and password to anybody who will be updating the Business Profile.


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I’ve Launched my New Social Media Account. Now What?

We recommend the following to help you promote your new account and to let others know that you have a Social Media page.

1. Create links on your email signature, website, and other Social Media accounts.

2. Suggest (via invitation) that clients log on and follow/become a fan of the company.

3. Hold special offers & discounts that can only be accessed though your Business Profile(s). (ie: “Log into Facebook to get a special password to receive 15% off your next purchase.”)

Build Your Facebook Fan Base

Suggest to Friends — Underneath your Profile photo is a link “Suggest to Friends.” You can either select all your friends, or hand pick to whom you want to send invitation.

Favorite Pages — If you find another business page you wish to connect to, you can “Add to My Page’s Favorites.”

Facebook’s news feed will help promote your page as well. Activity, discussions, and interaction on your page from fans will appear on their news feed, and alert their friends that they are involved with your business. This can (and will) drive others to your page, and create more of a fan base.

Build a Twitter Following

Start on Twitter by seeking out legitimate Profiles: magazines, websites, news, or even others in your field of interest. Start your search off by finding family, friends and colleagues you know are already on Twitter. Once you have added them, take a few minutes to see if they’re following any Profiles that might interest you and add those as well.

Search for keywords that relate to your business (such as: retail, design, green building) and see what tweets are informational and interesting to you. This will help you branch out to other users and will provide inspiration for your posts. Both of these things will help grow your following.

Pay special attention to Retweets (RT). If a post was Retweeted, the Profile the post originally came from might be worth looking into as especially credible.

Most Profiles you follow will turn around and follow you back, and larger, popular Profiles will drive others to your site. You can search Twitter by keyword (restaurant, electrician, design, etc.) or user names by using the search field.

Another way to grow is to follow users who follow your Profile. If someone follows your tweets, turn around and follow theirs. However, taking a quick second to check out a new Profile is recommended. You do not want to have your company Profile following spam artists, porn sites, etc.

Security Settings

One of the biggest concerns about using Social Media is the potential lack of privacy. People do not feel comfortable answering all the questions (address, email, telephone number) or think that their email will be bombarded with spam from “Big Brother” or spammers. What many people don’t realize, is that Social Media sites DO have security settings and boundaries can be put in place to help separate and maintain a comfort level.


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It is important that anyone acting as an Administrator on your account be aware of security issues, and be given guidelines about what information can be made public and what information is to remain private. Make sure that you and your staff understand that personal contact information, for example, is not to be given out on a Business Profile. Cell phone numbers can be particularly tricky since many business entrepreneurs use their cell phones for both business and personal contacts.

Facebook Security

Your Business Page will always be open to the public and can be viewed by anyone; there are no security settings for Business Pages. Personal Profiles have many options for security settings; they can be open to the public or only open to friends. The amount of security used can be personalized for each user. Act One Creative can go over all the settings with you to make sure your Personal Profile is secure.

Twitter Security

All Twitter accounts have just one security setting: “protect your tweets.” Protecting your tweets closes them off to everybody but your followers, and removes all tweets from the main timeline. Your tweets are also not searchable by other users on Twitter. By protecting your tweets, you are hindering people from receiving information and learning more about your company, which in turn can hurt your following. It is not recommended to protect your Business Profile.

A Few Things to Keep in Mind

• All web addresses should start with http:// to make them live links. (http://www.actonecreative.com)

• Keep your tweets (Twitter) to 140 characters max, and keep your posts (Facebook) to 420 max.

Recommended Resources:

Social Media Marketing for Dummies, by Shiv Singh

Facebook Marketing for Dummies, by Paul Denay and Richard Krueger

Twitter for Dummies, by Laura Fitton, Michael E. Gruen, and Leslie Poston

©2010, Act One Creative, LLC, This material cannot be reproduced wtihout permission.

For more information contact Denise Estey, SMM Specialist, [email protected] or 603.226.3311

social media marketing for small businesses · social media marketing for small businesses ... this...

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