"It Really Works!"

A couple of weeks ago, I gave a presentation about social media marketing to a business networking group I belong to. I used my white paper "Social Rules of Engagement for Businesses" as the basis of my presentation. A few days later, one of the people in the group came up to me to tell me she had tried out the suggestions I gave and that it was working. She was getting people to engage with the business through Facebook and more people were liking their page. I could see she was going to be doing more social media marketing and it made me feel great that I had been able to help that business grow even with just a few tips. Social media marketing does work, but of course it takes some work and it doesn't work for every business. It requires consistency and the commitment to being authentic and genuine. It also requires that you ignore the temptation to use it to sell things or services because you will lose the interest of your audience very quickly that way. It means you have to set aside time to do it regularly and make it a priority, not an "if I can get to it" task. More and more, customers are finding the front door to you business on their monitors. It may be your website they see first, but it also may be your LinkedIn or Facebook page, or even a video on You Tube. Take as much care with what you have out there online as you would with your storefront. And if you are not good at writing, then find someone who is because misspellings and bad grammar will hurt your business. It works, it really works. And if you would like a free copy of the "Social Rules of Engagement for Business" just email me at Kim@DeppeCommunications.com and I will get it right out to you.

Social Media for Small Business

Think you've done social media because you have a Facebook and Twitter site? Even if you happen to be posting as much as you can and effectively, there are still quite a few social media sites out there that you should consider for promoting your business. Here are a few I suggest:

Merchant Circle - this is a great site for interacting with other local businesses. While I believe they may be light on the interactivity, I do think there are very good prospects here for businesses. It is certainly good for most small businesses who offer services to other small businesses. If little else, it proliferates your brand by getting your company's name on the web in the business community. Consider it an internet based Chamber networking event. <a href=\"http://www.merchantcircle.com/\" title=\"http://www.merchantcircle.com\">www.merchantcircle.com</a>

Manta - this is one of several listing sites out there, but it is still free. They furnish free company profiles and having a listing will certainly help with your backlinks and influence the page rankings of your website. Again, I think it is a growing B2B social site that offers plenty of opportunity. It is more sophisticated than Merchant Circle. <a href=\"http://www.manta.com/\" title=\"http://www.manta.com\">www.manta.com</a>

Yelp - Yelp started out as a way for individuals to give eachother experiences about local businesses, both negative and positive. It has evolved into a robust rating system for all sorts of businesses, with a lot of valuable suggestions for restaurants, shopping, and other verticals. For those who don't \"own\" your Yelp listing, you should go online very soon and make sure you capture that. First, it will prevent anyone else (like a competitor) from taking control of your business on Yelp. Secondly, it should assure you maintain a listening ear to whatever individuals are saying about you on the site, providing you with the opportunity to respond right away.<a href=\"http://www.yelp.com/\" title=\"http://www.yelp.com\">www.yelp.com</a>

 YP - once upon a time we use to have these big books with telephone listings and business ads in them and that was how we found merchants. The yellow pages have moved online and now provide listings and ads coupled with news and information about events and activities. They have mobile apps and \"deal of the day\" to encourage engagement.<a href=\"http://www.yellowpages.com/\" title=\"http://www.yellowpages.com\">www.yellowpages.com</a>

 This is a brief overview and there are many more social sites for B2B marketing. If you d like to know more about getting your business more visibility online, just Email<a href=\"mailto:Kim@DeppeCommunications.com\" title=\"mailto:Kim@DeppeCommunications.com\">Kim@DeppeCommunications.com</a>.