Social Media is no longer just for the other guys, or other industry, CEO, niche or entrepreneur with more time on their hands. For the majority of the small to medium sized businesses we’ve spoken with, a few of the reasons why they haven’t adopted social media into their business include the time restraints of managing the social media and the business, single profile adoption (we’re on LinkedIn, isn’t that enough?) and of course, fear of the unknown.

The truth is social media is a collection of free tools that provide incredible visibility, connection and awareness. Yes, LinkedIn is a good start, especially for B2B businesses, that can connect you with other businesses and market partners. There is however some others, such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, blogs, shared bookmarks and shared content that can help you drive promotions, deliver news and distribute fresh, branded content. Really it doesn’t matter which, or how many, you’re on, what does matter is that your “social brand” becomes an interactive brand for your business.

You’ve probably heard of most of the leading social media tools out there, so we won’t be exhaustive, we’ll just discuss Twitter, Facebook and Blogs to get your social media feet wet and provide some our insight as to each of their values.

Twitter – Essentially a micro-blogging platform. I recently came across the 70-20-10 rule from Angela Maiers www.angelamaiers.com. It goes like this:

(70%) Sharing Resources – (20%) Collaborations – (10%) Chit-Chat [“yes, we’re all humans” kind of stuff]

Approximately 5 to 10 thousand new people join Twitter each day. Current estimates of total users are approximately 5 million. That’s a broad market. Duct Tape Marketing founder John Jantsch identified three big advantages of Twitter, (1) “I get great insight when I ask questions, (2) let’s face it, I get traffic and (3) people on Twitter spread my thoughts to new places.” The most important aspect with Twitter is to have a plan, get in front of the right people and join the conversation in a way that has meaning for your business.

Facebook – There are lots of options for businesses on Facebook. You can create Group and Fan pages, and if your page needs a kick, you can create Facebook ads at a pay per click rate. The Savy Agency uses Facebook to keep top of mind awareness with business and personal contacts since our page connects with our personal profiles. We also use our targeted, weekly updates for keyword search, yep for SEO. An effective Facebook SEO strategy is placing keyword dense content as close to the top of your page as possible (the highest place in the CSS structure) including the About box and Info tab. You can also create additional tabs for keyword rich content, and don’t forget to use videos, pictures, rich descriptions and links un-sparingly.

Blogs – A blog is just another voice of your interactive brand. It’s also a place where you can go into more detail, get more creative, and provide more content than on your Twitter and Facebook pages. It’s a forum for commenting on the content your market finds valuable, or if you have a personal blog, the stuff you find valuable. On your blog you can link to relevant posts, share your opinion, or your advice, and provide valuable information for those who find and/or follow your blog. Blogs are also a platform for reaching beyond your local market into a larger playing field, and of course, and this is our favorite use of the blog, for providing fresh, keyword rich content about your company, products and services into search results, complimenting and enhancing your organic search position.

As always, good luck on this, and let us know if you get stuck.

Cheers, The Savy Team