Small Business Marketing Using Three Different Social Media Networks

Businesses often use social media because it is reported to be a necessity of modern techniques, but they don't always have a good idea of what they are accomplishing by their efforts. It is best to set goals and check back to see how you are doing on any of the social media networks that you use. This is one reason you see the question "How did you hear about us" in almost every form you fill out online.

Once you have at least set short-term goals for your business, look into using the following platforms to promote your product/service.

FaceBook

Often the first network thought about, FaceBook has over 300 million users, so you can't ignore it. When you first sign up, you should try to acquire your company as a user name. This might be better put to a business fan page, which you won't be able to do if you use it for the personal account. Be careful to follow the rules closely with your personal account.

Check out how your primary competitors are doing with their FaceBook pages, including the number of fans they have. Take time to review what they have posted and what tools they are utilizing to market themselves. Use similar ideas that you feel will be helpful to your FaceBook presence, but vary some so as not to appear as a copycat.

Twitter

Unlike FaceBook, with Twitter you should probably go right for an account in your business name. You want to get your business's name before someone else does. Twitter has made it easy to understand what it can do for your business through a guide, but you will find some other good sources such as Mashable's Twitter Guide.

Take the time to search for relevant key word phrases that will let you know what is already on Twitter that would be competition to your own business. Look for competitors to see if they are on Twitter, and if they are how they are utilizing it. You can look for your own company to see if any customers are commenting about it, too.

Company Blog

Reserve a domain name for a future blog if you aren't getting ready to do one immediately. It is better to host your own WordPress blog rather than set it up within the WordPress.com community. You have more control when you host it yourself. A WordPress blog is fairly simple to set up, and there are many ready to load templates available.

If you aren't confident that you can manage the blog with your current skills, consider Posterous, a simple blog platform that will allow you to upload videos, photos, stories, comments, and MP3s. Consider the options carefully because you want to get the most from the time you will need to spend on a blog. Managing more than a couple of blogs can dilute the time you have for other business tasks.

These are only three of the ways you can get your business name and product out to the masses, but successful campaigns in these areas can have a great deal of impact for your company. Speak to an Internet Marketing Expert for further help.