Social Media Marketing

Small business owners ask me a lot of Facebook marketing questions, so I decided to compile the 10 most often asked questions and answer them in an eBook specifically for small business owners.

These most popular questions include:

Should my business be on Facebook?
What does it mean to market my business using Facebook?

Just Because You’ve Built It, Doesn’t Mean They Will Come

You finally have a powerful website and blog that you are proud to show off, with messages that clearly explain how you help your clients and the value you provide. Now, how do you drive your target audience to your site and generate qualified leads?

I recently presented a workshop at the New England Business Brokers Association meeting about how to integrate online and social media marketing for lead generation. As professional service business owners, we build our credibility by demonstrating our expertise and knowledge of our discipline and the use of social media makes building your reputation much simpler than before.

I spent a lot of time this weekend writing a marketing plan for a client. In doing so, I was searching for various resources and spending some quality time with Google. After a while, I noticed some search results at the bottom of the first page that said:

Results from people in your social circle for search term – BETA – My social circle – My social content

What appeared in those results were blog posts from people I follow on Twitter.

Is One More Successful than the Other?

I consistently get asked by small business owners if they should be doing social media marketing to help them grow their business. Before I answer their question, I usually ask them if they understand who their ideal client is and where they hang out.

You’ve developed your social media marketing plan, created your profiles, provided quality, relevant content and attracted followers, friends, fans and connections. Now that you have your growing communities, how do you keep them as raving fans and ultimately turn them into clients or customers?

Building a community requires you to both nurture the members so they remain in your community and engage them so they participate.

There is wide-spread confusion about the difference between a Facebook Profile and a Facebook Page and how to effectively use them. I’ve recently had a few friend invitations from profiles using business names. Creating a profile in a business name is frowned upon by Facebook and you run the risk of having your account warned or disabled.

I have always been about quality. I know a lot of people, but value my few close friends. When it comes to clothes, I would rather have one quality, custom outfit than a dozen that were just ok. And when it comes to social media, I want to build a quality network of people rather than a massive list of names.

The United States Golf Association (USGA), of which I have been a member for years, launched a tribute to Arnold Palmer for his 80th birthday. It seems like just yesterday that I kept score for Arnie when one of the first PGA Senior Tour event was held at my home course of Marlborough Country Club.

In a recent Business Week Viewpoint article called “Beware Social Media Marketing Myths“, Gene Marks highlights what he feels are 5 myths of social media marketing that small business owners should be aware of. Although all 5 of these statements as he describes are myths, I believe this article is misleading to readers on the value of using social media as a channel to build visibility and awareness for your business and personal brand.