SOCIAL MEDIA PRINCIPLES

FOR SMALL BUSINESS

#IESBGAIllinois Entrepreneurship & Small Business Growth Association Conference (IESBGA)

twitter: @carlcatedral

WHY?

WHY USE SOCIAL MEDIA?

WHY USE SOCIAL MEDIA?

Build Relationships:• With Your Community

• With Your Customers• With Other Businesses

WHY USE SOCIAL MEDIA (CONT.)

Return to the good ‘ol days

WHY USE SOCIAL MEDIA (CONT.)

Extension of real life relationships

WHY USE SOCIAL MEDIA (CONT.)

An opportunity to be helpful

HOW?

HOW TO BUILD RELATIONSHIPS ON TWITTER

SOCIAL MEDIA GOLDEN RULE

Tweet others the way

You want to be tweeted

DESIGN

TWITTER IS DESIGNED FOR RELATIONSHIPS

HOW TO BUILD RELATIONSHIPS ON TWITTER

1. Identify needs

2. Provides solutions to needs

HOW TO BUILD RELATIONSHIPS ON TWITTER

Create Conversation:

Listen // Ask Questions // Respond // Add something meaningful

WHAT?

WHAT DO YOU TWEET ABOUT?

THE PRACTICAL

SOCIAL MEDIA IN ACTION

KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE

"THE CHALLENGE FOR [SOCIAL MEDIA] MARKETERS IS NOT KNOWING EVERY PLATFORM BUT KNOWING YOUR DEMOGRAPHIC.” - @CHAMBANALAURA ON #SMLIVEECI

LISTENING

WHAT DO YOU TWEET ABOUT

GOOD WAYS TO LISTEN

Follow the right people• Community Leaders• Industry Leaders

COMMUNITY LEADERS • @chambanamoms

• @chambanalaura

• @CHCEDC

• @CUMTD

• @colaburbana

• @cityofurbana

• @champarks

• @smcchambana

• @smilepolitely

What about industry leaders?

GOOD WAYS TO LISTEN

Use + Follow the Right HashtagsCommunity• #chambana• #livemerge• #techCU

My Industry• #socEnt• #STEMtoSTEAM

THE ANATOMY OF A TWEET

RESPONDING

WHAT DO YOU TWEET ABOUT // CONVERSATIONS

HOW TO RESPOND WELL• Have conversations with others

• Begin your conversations and Reply with “@”

• Reply to others who mention you as soon as you can (within 24 hours)

• Retweet what’s relevant to your community or business by selecting a tweet and clicking “Retweet”

• Favorite other peoples tweets

• Turn your notifications on – phone or email so you know when people interact with you

RETWEETS

CREATING TWEETS

WHAT DO YOU TWEET ABOUT?

Be A Leader

1) Be a hyperlocal community leader

2) Be an industry thought leader

3) Provide value to your followers

• Create unique content – photography, videos, blog posts

• Curate quality content related to your industry

• Call to Action: guide people to a landing page on your website, to sign up for a newsletter, or to claim a special offer on social media.

BE A LEADER THROUGH SERVING

WHAT DO YOU TWEET ABOUT?

HYPERLOCAL

"SOCIAL MEDIA IS AN OPPORTUNITY TO RETURN LOCAL FLAVOR TO LOCAL COMMUNITIES." #ATMW @CHAMBANALAURA

TIPS FOR WELL-COMPOSED TWEETS

• Mention your information source (where you found the link, image, etc.)

• Use hashtags that give information about your tweet and promote your brand (i.e. #passivehouse #passivebuilding)

• Make shorter tweets – aim for 120 characters or less to increase the likelihood of retweets

ELEMENTS OF A HIGHLY ENGAGED POST

 

1. Good visuals / images that stick out on people’s newsfeed

2. Mentioning other users on Facebook

3. Interesting material curated from around the web that serves as a resource for your Facebook likers

4. Posts that engage people to comment (i.e. questions or provoking content)

OTHER BEST PRACTICES• Create unique posts for each social media platform

• The best times to post depend on your audience, but here are some recent stats:

Facebook

Best times: Weekdays 6:00-8:00am and 2:00-5:00pm // Saturdays (early afternoons and after dinner)

Worst times: Weekends 10:00pm-4:00am

Twitter

Best times: Weekends 1:00-3:00 pm

Worst times: 8:00pm-8:00am

CASE STUDIES

BENEFITS TO YOUR BUSINESS• Allow customers to have direct access to you

• Chance to know what potential customers want

• New ways to build long term relationships with business and customers

• New ways to build trust as a reliable source and transparent business

• You can do better business based on real community needs

• If it’s good for your community, it’s good for your business.

ROI

"THIS IS WHAT MOST BUSINESSES WANT, BUT IT OFTEN IS VERY DIFFICULT TO MEASURE. SOCIAL MEDIA IS ABOUT RELATIONSHIPS NOT SALES.” - @CHAMBANAMOMS

QUESTIONS FOR SMALL BUSINESSES

• Why do you exist as a business? – Mission / Values

• Who are you serving? – Target Audience

• What is the message you want to share? Brand

• How are you you communicating your message? Marketing

BRANDING AND MARKETING

Good branding creates a clear, cohesive and consistent identity for your business.

The best social media strategy comes from clearly communicating your brand through a comprehensive marketing strategy (social, web, print).

• Does your business communicate a clear, cohesive and consistent message? /Do your website, social media platforms and print advertisements reflect brand consistency?

• Do you have a marketing budget? / What are other companies in your industry spending on marketing?

The answers to these questions can help you know how to spend your resources wisely on social media advertising and content creation.

CLOSING THOUGHTS• Be authentic. Remember why you are in business in the first

place and keep in mind that at the end of the day social media is all about relationship building.

• Take risks. Rules were meant to be broken. Social media is constantly changing. Experiment with new ideas and concepts.

• Own your brand. No one can care as much about your business as you. Take steps to invest in communicating about your brand and be proud about what you do.

www.carlcatedral.com/IESBGA

THANK YOU