Social Media: Chasing the Ball
January 26, 2010 by Mary Ellen · Leave a Comment
“Yelp it!” encouraged my friend shortly after returning from San Francisco. “The restaurants we chose came from Yelp and our entrees were described in detail. I think we even got better service because the waiters saw me typing with my iPhone while we were there.”
Her enthusiasm was catching. I’ve since signed up although I have yet to write a review.
Maybe Yelp isn’t for you.
If you’re in business, you can hardly sit on the sidelines of social media.
But how do you pick? Where do you begin?
“It depends.”
Everyday there’s a new solution, an ‘opportunity’ that might make you millions, and will at the very least require some time to investigate. Rather than chasing the idea of the week much as a child chases a bouncing rubber ball, stop and think.
- What are your goals for your business?
- How do you expect social media to contribute?
- Do you have a long-term plan for social media?
In an article on open forum, consultant and speaker Amber MacArthur suggests five social media tools for small business:
- Nameck – discovery and implementation of names
- Twitter – promotion in 140 characters or less
- Bit.ly – shortening urls and more importantly, tracking the info
- WordPress – Yes for a blogging platform choice! (My choice as well.)
- Facebook – 350 million users can’t be wrong
Read the full article from this link: http://bit.ly/SocialMedia5. MacArthur demonstrates her grasp of the problem small business faces with her summary:
“Once you start to use these tools, assign someone within your organization to act as the community manager (if you’re a one-man or one-woman business, this manager will be you!). This person will control your online voice. With all social media sites, you get back from them what you put into them. In other words, it’s critical to start, follow, and take part in ongoing conversations. Finally, track your successes and take small steps to grow your social media presence as required.”
Disclosure: I ran across this article first on Alltop, a time-saving source for small businesses.
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