Social Media for Dummies and how to use it to Increase Business.

For small business owners Social Media can be overwhelming if you are not used to it and you may not have time to engage in social media, however in many cases you should have someone in your company learning and using social media to increase business. If you are a nonprofit you can use social media to increase donations and spread the word of your good works in the community.

Amazon sells several books on social media. In this rough economy small business needs every possible tool to ensure their success and best of all so social media is FREE. It costs nothing to open a Twitter account; it costs nothing to have a Facebook business page! The only thing it does take is a little time and effort. If you are busy I suggest you buy a book on it and give it to a trusted employee to read and have them set up your social media accounts and maintain them. They take very little time to set up and maintain.

I caution you though not to use social media as merely a tool to say "hey I have this, buy from me" because if that is all you say, then people won't follow you, so there is some tact and best practices to observe. There is an art of engagement that goes on with successful social media campaigns, which is overlooked by many beginners who aren't sure how it all works.

If you have a website and or a blog you can connect them with social media and drive traffic to your website. If you are a brick and mortar business and have a website that ultimately helps increase business at your physical location then you can also use social media to drive traffic to your website and help people become familiar with your business and what you have to offer at your physical location.

For example let's say you own a children’s entertainment center where moms come and hang out while their kids play. First make sure you are collecting everyone’s email address. And puts signs up everywhere to follow you on twitter and facebook to get access to coupons and special savings. Most entertainment centers that offer physical activities have parents sign a liability waiver in the case of injury. Just add the email address to one of the required lines to be filled out on the form.
Enter customer emails into customer contact software such as Constant Contact and send out monthly newsletters or occasional special events or coupons. Don't over email or your customers will get annoyed. Some will also unsubscribe, but don't worry about that it is just part of marketing your business online. On every single email make sure to add the links to encourage people to follow you on Twitter and Facebook. When present customers start following you, some of their friends in their network will also find out about you and follow you. Then when you have a decent following you can tweet "1/2 off admission at (your business name) this afternoon" (pick a normally slower day) and actually drive traffic to your business. It may take a few times to catch on, but you could do this on the same day of the week so that people come to expect it.

The easiest way to increase business in the case of a children's entertainment business is to have the customers you already have come to your establishment more often. This doesn't require expensive TV advertising or magazine advertising. Use free social media to offer your good customers’ discounts to lure them back and ask them to bring friends. Or offer your customer a discount when they bring a friend who has never been there before.

Growing a business requires lots of persistence which any small business owner will tell you. Often it also takes a lot of money too, however social media can be used to help you grow your business without spending money on advertising. Happy customers will bring more happy customers but an unhappy customer can turn many more people away and social media will only amplify that power, so make sure that no one leaves your business unhappy. Give them something for free if that is what it takes to make them happy. If someone complains to you about your business always thank them for letting you know because you can't fix problems if you don't know you have them so that feed back is valuable even though the delivery of the information may sting a little and make you feel defensive.

The Bottom line is that social media can benefit your business and if you don't have the time to do it then find a trusted employee to do it as part of their day to day responsibilities. Buy a book for example the one listed above and have them read it and learn it and implement it or pay someone to do it.