But how will you know if it’s the right thing to do? You could just be wasting your time and money.

It’s a really good idea to clear some space in your diary, and spend a few hours really getting to grips with a few fundamentals. For example:

• What exactly are you offering?
• Who is it aimed at?
• Who are your competitors?
• How are you different?
• Do you have a variety of products that suit different groups of people?
• What are their concerns?
• Where will you find these people?
• What are your key messages?

Once you know all these things, you can start to put together a plan of attack. The most important thing to remember is that your messages and communication channels need to be relevant to your audience. It’s no good having a facebook page just because everyone else seems to. What are you going to say? Are your customers using facebook, and will they find your content interesting while they’re on facebook? Don’t forget, many people use it to ‘escape’ from work, so if your messages are too business-like they may get overlooked.

What about local advertising? Are your customers all local people? Do they read the local paper? Do you have any newsworthy items that could get you some free PR coverage?

Could you do a leaflet drop instead? Are there any other local publications such as community magazines?

Would the trade press be more appropriate? Do you have a national audience in a niche market?

By taking some time to figure this all out, you can save yourself time and money, and generate income a lot more quickly.

We talked about the importance of having quality relationships, rather than quantity. And I’m pleased to say that my facebook page and twitter feed are busy with lots of quality people who join in conversations, share knowledge and ask questions, so thank you if you’re one of them! I know that I’d rather have fewer good contacts than lots of poor ones (porn stars and get-rich-quick schemes take note)

But there’s no doubt, we all want to know how to increase those numbers.

Here is Melanie’s story about her twitter success – if you’d like these tips for facebook, let us know and we’ll cover that next month …

The Secret Recipe for Building Your Twitter Community

In January, I finally got my head around Twitter, and realised there must be a way to make sense of the constant chatter and add value to my business without wasting my time and effort.

Building a social community takes planning, time and common sense. Therefore with this in mind, I formulated my own recipe based on the following:

Who I Follow – Is There Value For Me? Is the Content Relevant?

I reviewed every account, looked at each individual profile, read their biography, saw how often they tweeted and most importantly decided if the content was relevant for me.  If I felt that they weren’t adding any value, I stopped following.

Then I started to search and follow local people, businesses and subjects of interest and revised my follow lists accordingly. I continue to review who I follow on a regular basis and this process works for me.

Some people have automatic follows set up, so if you follow them they return the favour and follow you, personally I don’t think this is a good idea. Don’t be tempted by tools that offer an abundance of followers, or people who if you follow them they follow back just to ramp up numbers. There is no value for either side.

Who Follows Me – Is There Value For Them? Is My Content Relevant?

I decided to pay attention to what content I share. And asked myself is it relevant?

My business is about social media marketing, I tweet about anything that is related to social media, including tips and advice, links to my blog posts and retweet related content that I like. I also like to chat, try to remain professional but want to have some fun too.

When I realised that my retweets and mentions were on the up, I thought this is good, I must be hitting the “relevancy spot” for some of my followers. Having a consistent approach works for me, and keeps me on track when I am about to tweet something, and helps those who do decide whether or not to follow me, with what they can expect to see.

Do More Followers Equal Success?

More often than not, we get caught up with the numbers game and think the bigger the following the greater success.  Whilst I will readily admit my euphoria at reaching 1,000 followers on Twitter, what value does it add to my business?

The amount of followers will always ebb and flow and I don’t believe the number of followers you have means you are successful. Surely how you engage and the content you share demonstrates more success?

The more you can get people talking, the more popular your page will become as others will see the interactions going on and want to join in. Here are some ideas (based on a garden centre) to get you started:

Share photos:                               
“Here are some pictures of our gorgeous hanging baskets, made over the last few days. “

Hints and tips:                              
“Now’s the time to plant your clematis if you want beautiful flowers in the early summer months. Plant them in a sunny spot for best results”

Awareness:                                   
“Did you know we offer a gardening service, including lawn-mowing, hedge trimming and weeding?”

Staff focus/personal:                
“This is John, he works in our accounts department and has been with us for 5 years. He loves his enormous Irish wolfhound dogs, and regularly walks them in the park – you may have met them”

Warm and friendly:                    
“Mary’s got a packet of chocolate hobnobs for her tea break. She’s promised to share them if you pop into the shop today!”

Competition:                                
“Guess how many bedding plants we planted up yesterday. The nearest one will win a free box of beautiful pansies.”

Exclusive Offers:                         
“10% discount on everything today, just for our facebook friends. Mention facebook at the till to get your discount”

Achievements:                            
“Hooray! We’re in the local paper. Read all about our recent award here… “ (link to article)

Updates:                                        
“Just arrived …”  “Now in stock….” “We’re busy getting on with …” etc

Events:                                            
“We’re going to be at the village fair on Saturday – pop by and see us” (include details)

Success stories:                           
“We’re so proud of Fred who has just passed his NVQ Level 1 after months of hard work – well done Fred!”

Seasonal:                                        
Mother’s Day, Easter, Christmas – special items for sale/events

News:                                              
“Mr Celebrity is coming to see us on Tuesday”

Acknowledgements:                 
“Thanks to the local paper for supporting our campaign …”  “Thanks to all our supporters for their hard work and generous donations”

Questions/discussion:              
“What do you think looks best – this one or that one?” (with a photo)

Behind the scenes:                    
“Here’s Mary, busy preparing our planted tubs ready for sale at the weekend” (with a photo)

Link to articles:                             
“There’s a really good article about how to make the most of a north facing garden on the Gardener’s World website – have a look here” (link to website)

Involvement:                                
“We’re planning a family summer party … what entertainment would you like to see?”                                                           
“We need a new name for our gardening service – any ideas?”                                                          
“We’re having a sale at the weekend – tell all your friends and call in to see us for some fantastic bargains on all plants and garden accessories!”

Celebrity news:                           
“Mr & Mrs Celebrity called in today and bought lots of geraniums for their terrace”

Case studies:                                 
Stories and case studies of people who’ve worked with you can be written as an article and posted within the Notes section of your page. You can also add photos in this section. The introduction appears as a status update on your wall and on the news feed of all your facebook fans.     

Top tips

• Use images and links to either your own website or other, related websites to add interest and colour to your status updates.
• Be warm and friendly, not too formal – facebook is a social environment
• Respond and thank people for their comments and input on your page
• Be responsive to others – they will appreciate it and return the favour
• Even if you haven’t got anything to say, click the “like” button to show that you like a post

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1.  Have a plan – be clear why you are using social media
2.  Make your username meaningful
3.  Use a photograph, not the standard ‘mystery’ icon
4.  Use the same photograph consistently so that people recognise you
5.  Spend time on your profile information – what do people need to know?
6.  Introduce yourself when asking people to connect
7.  Post updates regularly – how often will depend on your product and your audience
8.  Don’t use social media as a soap-box. Add value
9.  Think quality, not quantity – make sure your updates are useful
10.  Be responsive – thank people for their comments, start conversations

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Last year, facebook changed the terminology around business pages – insteading of becoming a “fan”, people can now “like” your page instead. This is a step in the right direction, and makes people less reticent to join your page. After all, you are a fan of a football team or a movie star, not a business! Here are some ideas to help you maximise your business page.

Friends: You will need a personal facebook page before you can create a business page. The difference is that on your personal page, you have friends. People you know and have agreed to be friends with. On a business page anyone can “like” you. You don’t have to be “friends” with them, and they won’t see your personal page. You won’t be identified in person unless you choose to be.

Groups: If you want to restrict members of your page, consider setting up a group instead. This enables you to approve people before they join.

Use the tools: Both types of page give you the option to create events, share photos, write articles in the “notes” section and start discussions.  They are like a mini-website and very easy to maintain and update.

Naming your page: When you create a name for your page, make it descriptive – not just your business name e.g. “Sarah Jones – artist with a passion for colour” rather than simply “Sarah Jones”

More than one business: If you have different businesses, create a page for each one. You can have several pages.

Accessing your business page: Whenever you sign into facebook, you will land on your personal home page.  You can link to your business page from your profile page, under ‘info’. This has the added benefit of being visible to anyone who looks at your profile.

A user-friendly name: Once you have 25 people on your page, you can create a “vanity url” i.e. a name of your choice which would be www.facebook.com/yourname . In order to do this, go to www.facebook.com/username where you can change it. WARNING!  It’s very easy to mistakenly name your personal page, rather than your business page and once you’ve done it, you can’t change it. Make sure you choose the second option which is “set a user name for your PAGE”

Encouraging people to join: Evidently you will invite all your friends to “like” your page.  And it will slowly grow as others see your page and join it. Add a link to your page in your email signature, your website, your stationery etc.

Saying thank you: When people join your page, send them a message thanking them for joining and encourage them to take part, post comments, ask questions. Your page should be interactive for best effect.  It’s also good to acknowledge people’s input and comments.

Keep it interesting: What will be of interest to your fans – helpful hints, links to good articles, photographs, videos. If you don’t know, ask a question, or start a discussion e.g. what do you think of this?  Make sure you’re not just broadcasting your news all the time.

Be inspired: Have a look at other people’s pages. Which ones do you like?  Why?

Join me on facebook www.facebook.com/janebrocklebankmarketing

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One of the benefits of LinkedIn is that it can showcase an individual’s career background and experience. Generally speaking, if you want to get on in the world, it’s worth having an easy to view summary of your skills, your career history and a couple of good testimonials … and LinkedIn does that job very nicely. 

If a small business is run by some key people whose background is relevant to the business, then I would certainly recommend it. For instance, I recently met a lady who was launching a fashion business. Her background was very relevant and impressive, and a LinkedIn profile would add credibility to her fledgling company. It would also be beneficial for her to join in relevant fashion/purchasing related groups and discussions to raise awareness of herself, and also to create relationships with like-minded people or others in her industry.

A consultancy type business should use LinkedIn, again for credibility and establishing previous relevant experience, recommendations etc. Potential clients will often search online to find out more about a business before contacting them. If you don’t have any recommendations, don’t be shy about asking for them. LinkedIn users know that this is a desirable feature and if they have enjoyed working with you, they won’t mind you asking. LinkedIn is very well indexed in the search engines, and your profile may even appear above your own website in online searches.

Make sure you update your status report regularly with something meaningful. Although some people choose not to receive it, the weekly Network Updates that come from LinkedIn give the activity highlights of all your contacts, so it’s a good way to stay “front of mind” of your network.

Having a well thought out Linked In profile is the first step. Joining industry groups within the site, sharing thoughts, opinions and information, making useful connections and communicating (networking) with others is the key to making LinkedIn an effective marketing tool.

Photo credit ThinkPanama

1.  Introduce yourself properly. Rather than just sending the standard request to ask someone to be your friend or to join your network, add a personal note. If you know them this will be easy. If not, explain why you would like to connect with them or who you know that is a mutual connection.

2. Include a photograph in your profile. It’s much nicer to put a face to a name, and if you’re trying to build your presence online, it makes you more recognisable when people can see the same picture across the various online platforms.  A professional photo is something you will use again and again, and it’s worth investing in one.

3. Include a biography. It’s helpful for others to know what your business is, where you’re based (the internet is global don’t forget!), and possibly something personal depending on the relevance. A lack of biography means it is less likely for those you don’t know to accept your connection, and it can make it look like you’re hiding something (for instance, spammers don’t have profiles or have vague, meaningless ones).

4. Don’t just start spouting about your business. Think about what your first few “posts” or updates could be. These could be a mixture of introducing yourself and your business, something useful or interesting connected with your line of work (e.g. a link to an article or an insightful quote), industry news, useful tips – variety is the key. People will switch off if you just talk about your products and services all the time.

5. Take part. Add comments to other people’s articles, let them know you like something they’ve written, pass it on to others if you think they will enjoy it too. Encourage people to comment and ask questions on your updates.

6. Acknowledge others. If somebody comments on your posts or articles, respond and thank them for contributing. Start a discussion, engage with others.  However, don’t have a private discussion in public!  It’s a bit like having a loud mobile phone conversation on a quiet train. If the conversation starts to go on, but is not relevant to the topic, send private or direct messages instead.

It’s much like being at a real-life networking event. Have a go, and watch and learn how others do it.  You will soon start to see different styles, and be able to see who does it well – then you can emulate them.