I still meet people that are business owners that say ‘ I’m not into facebook, I don’t want everyone looking at my stuff, I’m a private person’.
As a marketing person, this absolutely baffles me. If you are a business owner, your primary goal is to get more business. How do you do that? By being where your customers are. More and more, all of these customers are on social media.
Besides being able to tweak your privacy settings, like building a list of ‘acquaintances’ for posts to business acquaintances and everyone else and a list of ‘friends’ to share personal status updates with, the era of being a ‘private person’ is slowly diminishing. People want to connect, share experiences, talk about great products or things that resonate with them. This creates a huge opportunity for businesses to understand their customers better and build deeper, lasting relationships.
I talked about using social media to network at conferences a few days ago. But perhaps more important is how to make sure you are the same brand across all social media platforms.
The networks you are on depends on your business. I usually recommend the big 3 for business: Facebook, Twitter and Linked In. With today’s resources, it’s easy to make sure you look the same across the board. Here are a few tips to start building your brand:
- What is your brand? – Are you selling insurance? Are you selling a service? Think about what that looks like and what pictures and names would attract your clientele. If you’re selling cookies, make cookies part of your title. Don’t make customer’s guess what you do.
- Put your personality in- One of the great speakers from last week’s Hispana Leadership Conference, Luly B, has an excellent example of a page with personality. It’s easy to see that she is a mom, a business owner, and a speaker.
- Look the same across all platforms- it’s easy to find guides to make sure your profile images, header images and twitter backgrounds all look the same.
Is it time consuming? Yes. Is it worth it? Absolutely. You will look like a legitimate professional that cares about their image and not just some start-up. Think about how you look like in swim trunks and a t-shirt versus wearing your best suit. Social media is an interview with your clients, would you wear your surf shorts to an interview? You are still the same person, just more presentable.
Why be negative?
I ‘like’ many business pages in my area that I know are managed by local owners. While it’s a good cost-saving practice, often, these owners have zero media or marketing training. Social media is media, and every message has to be as appropriate as publishing it in the paper.
In the last few weeks, a local restaurant has posted several times about being tired, been combative over not offering certain products and other not-so positive messages. A piece of advice that always rings true is that negative messages, such as bad news or negative posts, are so much more likely to receive interactions from fans. Why? Well, if you saw statuses like this, would you like them?
Of course I don’t ‘like’ someone being pooped about prepping. Do I ‘like’ that they don’t use cheap meat? Well, I would hope so!
Here are my suggestions for editing these posts
1. We take pride in the quality of ingredients we serve our customers! Our beef is marinated in kiwi juice for hours, providing a tender filling with no added sugar or additives.
2. After a long night of prepping, we are ready to see you here tomorrow! Here is a picture of what we have in store for you!
Do you see how the language changes the sentiment entirely? It makes me feel like you appreciate your customers, that you strive to provide the best quality product and that you are working your tail off to provide a superior product. Do I ‘like’ this? I would!
Always think of how you can take the positive approach and watch your engagement numbers increase!
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Filed under Tips for Business Owners
Tagged as facebook, facebook marketing, local restaurants, Marketing and Advertising, negative comments, Negative Messages, small business., social media, status updates