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For a small business owner, knowing the ins-and-outs of social media can be an overwhelming task. Especially if it’s just one person who is managing the ‘social media’ side of the business, it’s easy to overlook the little changes that occur everyday on Twitter, Facebook, and more.
Just how in school the teacher says “there are no stupid questions,” the same goes for questions regarding social media. It’s better to ask and know rather than try and find out.
With that said, here are 10 common social media questions that we get from small business owners
1.) Facebook, Twitter or both?
Most businesses can benefit from having a presence on both Twitter and Facebook, but one thing to consider is to what extent and how you will use the platforms.
Facebook is great for sharing content/news about your brand while Twitter is great for direct engagement with your target audience. A business may want to use Facebook to share photos, deals and news (Naked Pizza is the example shown) while using Twitter to engage with users relevant to their business or as a customer service tool.
It should be noted that most not all businesses can benefit from both. In some instances, such as when the business has no consumer facing interface, only one of the social media platforms may fit.
2.) How many Facebook fans or Twitter followers is a good number?
The best answer to this is to not worry about your numbers. Yes, it’s great to be able to say you have 1,000 followers on Twitter, but what matters is the engagement level of your community.
A simple way to put it is this: Would you rather have 100 followers/friends that promote your brand for you, share your content, and talk about you to their friends, or 10,000 followers/friends who are not engaged with your brand?
3) Should I reply to all posts from Facebook/Twitter users?
You can, but we suggest you pick the right battles. The best way to determine if you should reply back is to weigh the value of the comment. Is it answering a question about your business? If you let it go, will it hurt your brand? (ie: A rumor about your brand.), will responding cause more bad than good (ie: sports team that replies back to an fan that is angry that they lost)?
For instances where a user is asking a questions about your business (ie: product, hours of operation, etc.), you should always consider these as the top priority for responses.
4) Do I need to hire someone to manage my social media presence?
The exact position title of the person who would manage your social media strategy and presence would be a Community Manager. To determine if you should bring someone to fill that role consider the following questions:
- How many hours are you currently spending on social media?
- Where are you in your social media strategy: just starting out, building community, advanced, etc.?
- Is there someone internally who can take over the role and is versed in social media?
- Where do you want your social media efforts to be in 6 months?
Depending on how you answer the questions above, it should give you a better feel of whether or not you will need to bring someone in to help you manage.
5) How do I get people to find my business?
One of the most effective ways to get people to ‘find’ your business on social media outlets like Facebook and Twitter is word of mouth. If you have a physical business location, such as a restaurant, use a combination of in-store signage and employees telling customers where they can find you online. You can even offer an incentive for customers to ‘connect’ with you on Facebook or Twitter by offering special offers available only online.
Another way to get the attention of your target audience is through paid advertising.
For Facebook, this would be through Facebook Ads. Through Facebook’s ad platform, you will be able to create and customize advertising campaigns to fit your target audience.
For Twitter, paid advertising would be in the form of Twitter’s Promoted Tweets, Accounts and Trends. To figure out what type would fit your business best, consult Twitter’s advertising guide.
If you don’t have a budget for advertising, another way to get people to find your business is to use local publications to do coverage of your business and to include notes within the publication on where they can learn more. For example, in the local newspaper there was a feature article on a local bakery and how they made their special cupcakes. At the end of the article, it had a note about how I can watch the full video and also sign-up to their special invite only tasting event on their Facebook page.
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What questions do you have about social media do you have that you would like us to answer in Part 2? Let us know in the comments below!