With one click of the button your message can be instantly seen by hundreds, if not thousands of individuals. The simplicity with which your message can reach people instantaneously is one reason why many businesses have turned to social media to reach out to their audiences. But, using social media because it’s easy (and relatively inexpensive) is not reason enough to post, tweet and publish! What you say on social media matters, it really matters. The Social Media Crash Course is a two-part online course that is designed to help small-business owners and managers better understand what to say on social media, when to say it, on what platforms (Twitter, blog, YouTube, Facebook) to say it and importantly, HOW to say it. Below are tweets from a recent course. The next course is now registering. For any business using social media, it is important to figure out what sort of message you want to deliver. What is the story that you want to tell?
Social media is about stories. What stories do you want to tell? Choose the platforms that will help you the best #abnsocial @CatMatson — SuziDafnis (@SuziDafnis)
But it doesn’t stop there. To get the most out of the social media experience, you need to engage with your audience.
Social media is an ideal way to engage customers online for #smallbusiness @CatMatson #abnsocial — SuziDafnis (@SuziDafnis)
There is no denying that with social media comes the prospect of receiving negative feedback. And that’s okay and negative comments shouldn’t be ignored.
Remember, negative comments are often not slander, quite often they are feedback. Engage online. @CatMatson #abnsocial — SuziDafnis (@SuziDafnis)
Use negative feedback on social media as a means to find ways to better improve your services and/or products. Social media allows businesses the opportunity to establish their credibility and display their expertise in the industry field their business belongs to.
Blogs allow you to really develop your authority on an area: the herBusiness blog publishes professional women in business #abnsocial… — SuziDafnis (@SuziDafnis)
The great thing about businesses using social media is that they are not limited to one type of social network. So if one type social media doesn’t suit the needs of your business, then there are plenty of other types of social media to choose from.
If you have a visual business then Instagram is going to be great for customer photos and your own #abnsocial @CatMatson — SuziDafnis (@SuziDafnis)
It can be difficult to figure out which social media network is right for you and your business, but never start using them for the sake of using them.
Just because everyone is doing it doesn’t mean you should too – use the platforms that work for your business @CatMatson #abnsocial — SuziDafnis (@SuziDafnis)
But how do you know which social media platform is best suited to your business’ needs?
My favourite social media tools – Flipboard for consuming content, Buffer for spacing tweets out through the day and Hootsuite #abnsocial — Cat Matson (@catmatson)
The Social Media Crash Course identifies the best network and platform for your specific business and teaches practical ways to implement social media into your business practises, smoothly integrating it with your overall activity and business plans. If you’re going to invest resources in social media then I recommend you take the time to learn how to make it work effectively for you and your business. Learn more about the Social Media Crash Course, here.
