7 Ways Small Businesses Can Interact on Social Media

by Anna McHenry January 17, 2013

Social media marketing can be very important to successfully branding your business. If you want to improve your profitably, then having a presence on social media websites is a must. Small businesses can use websites like Facebook and Twitter to reach out to their target audience and drive traffic to their website. Below, you will find 7 ways that you can accomplish this without wasting too much time or money. These are methods that are tried and true by other businesses that have given social media their best marketing attempt.

 

 

1 – Post regular status updates

 

One of the best ways to drive traffic to your website and make your social media efforts successful is to post regular status updates and include links to your blog posts and website pages throughout them. If you have friends or followers, then people will see these links and if they like the topic, they may decide to click it and go to your website. It’s important to update your website multiple times per day but focus on only posting things that are relevant and of interest to your target audience.

 

 

2 – Reply to friends and followers

 

Replying to Tweets or statuses that you are tagged in is very important but you can also jump into conversations where you are not. Being a part of the community and contributing to the conversation in whatever way you can get your business noticed. The better you communicate, the more eyes will end up on your page. If you have a strong message and products or services that social media users like, it could even be effective at generating traffic for you.

 

 

3 – Suggest that your friends like your page

 

If you have a business page on Facebook, one of the best ways to promote that page is by suggesting that some of your friends ‘like’ the page. This increases your like count and it will effectively promote your brand. Your friends are more likely to do this for you than someone you don’t know. This has led to a lot of companies running heavy marketing companies for the individual employees that make up their company.

 

 

4 – Post statuses on company news

 

Some of your statuses should be about company news, rather than just blog posts and pages that you have on your website. Keeping your customers informed about company progression is very important. Company news can be new products or services that you offer, new employees that you have hired, or quality improvements or updates that you have released.

 

 

5 – Post statuses on industry events and news

 

Industry events are very important and by publishing statuses about them, you will show the world that you have a presence at these events. Additionally, industry news can be used to promote your business as well. The better that you keep up with important industry movements; the better you will look on your social media pages.

 

 

6 – Reach out to other businesses

 

Trade shows and corporate events are important to networking and reaching out to businesses in your industry. However, you can also reach out in a more subtle way on social media websites. ‘Liking’ pages and adding other employees as friends are great ways connect and network. Trading services is an opportunity that businesses can use to progress forward as well. This allows you to get things you’re your business needs, without having to pay for them directly.

 

 

7 – Add friends and followers

 

You don’t want to overextend yourself, but adding a fair amount of friends and followers is always a good idea. You never know, they may decide to ‘friend’ you back. This can help grow your network on social media websites and it can be an effective way to brand yourself. The more people you can add, the better, but be sure to keep your profile active and give them status updates that are worthy of reading.

Anna McHenry
Anna McHenry is the Director of Client Services here at McKremie. She tweets from @McKremie so stop by and say "hi" on Twitter.

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