Making the Most of Social Media in the Workplace

Many small-business employees are playing on Facebook and Twitter during the workday. That’s just the way it is—so why not put one some of that wasted work time to good use? Most owners of small companies don’t have a spare moment to focus on social media. The solution: Empower a trusted employee to spend a little time out of their work day to play social media manager.

Got a writer or video enthusiast on the team? Give them the chance to shine without putting out a ton of money for professional marketing. Another idea is to offer up an internship to people studying marketing at nearby colleges. They can get their class credits in and your company has itself a social media manager free of charge.

How to Pick the Right Platform for Your Social Marketing

Small business owners definitely do not have time to maintain; let alone master, multiple social media networks. After finding that ideal employee or intern, it is time to identify the social media networks that will best suit your company’s needs.

The first step is to narrow down the age group and interest that your business caters to. When it comes to age, both younger and older customers lean toward Facebook and Twitter, while younger generations tend to use Instagram and Snapchat. LinkedIn and Google+ definitely cater to a more professional audience, while Pinterest and Instagram are great for spotlighting art and fashion type companies.

If you have a video enthusiast in your midst, have that person focus on getting the word out about your business on YouTube (which is actually the second largest search engine on the web). A casual blog on WordPress can drive more traffic to your website, and potentially bring some extra money in the door.

All of these networks are (mostly) free of charge and will catch the customer’s attention. Utilizing social media has another bonus: The platforms are quick and simple to manipulate. Changes can be made on the fly to get the word out—whereas websites can be confusing and costly to make changes to.

Keep in mind that every mention of your company by a customer on a social media site is either free advertising or expensive damage.

Either way, it’s crucial that your company responds right away; ideally within an hour. How many others out there have already seen those comments? Engage the customers. Tweet them back and message them often. Keep the conversation going and make it personal. If anyone knows how to do this well, it’s probably an employee.

Small Business Social Marketing Tips

Some key things to keep in mind as you delve deeper into social…

• Pay attention to the customer’s location, age, income, and interests
• Get the word out with #hashtags and retweets
• On twitter, have a “pinned” tweet that has a link to your website. Be sure to have a website link on your Facebook page.
• People love polls. Interaction makes a difference and polls are very popular—especially Twitter polls.
• Catch the audience’s attention with clever taglines and catchy messages that describes the company’s mission
• Get that company or product out there through the use of #hashtags
• Add photos to the social media posts. Images on Twitter and Facebook posts make the casual passersby stop and read.
• Repeat posts. Share content at least twice and at different times of the day.
• It is even important to host a quick training with all of the employees to remind them that they represent the company outside of work as well as inside. Positive tweets help, yet it only takes one negative tweet to spread like wildfire.