BBB Advice: Five Tips for Ensuring Social Media Success in 2010

By Angie Barnett

Many small businesses are starting to get in step with the times and use social media to promote their businesses online through sites like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter. The Better Business Bureau (BBB) recommends that small business owners ease into the waters thoughtfully when planning to launch a social media strategy; otherwise, they risk abandoning the ship in frustration.
Small businesses are shifting their marketing strategy away from expensive ad buys and are increasingly looking toward social media engagement as the less expensive alternative. According to a recent survey by VerticalResponse, 70% of small- to medium-sized businesses plan to increase their use of social media in 2010. At the same time, 79% say they will not run television ads, and 70% say they will not make radio buys.
Small business owners are taking a hard look at their marketing budgets. Adopting a comprehensive, but manageable, social media strategy can be an inexpensive, yet effective, way to improve customer relations and spread the word about your business.
The BBB offers the following advice to small business owners who want to start promoting their company online through social media.
- Don't get in over your head. If you're a small business owner who also wears the marketing hat, the worst thing you could do is launch a large, unmanageable strategy that takes up too much time and ends up neglected. You don't have to do it all at once.
Instead, try to set aside a few minutes every day to engage one or two aspects of social media promotion. Start small, such as with a Facebook page, by commenting on blogs or by connecting with customers on Twitter. Let your social media strategy grow and evolve as you learn what works best for you.
- Create and share information. Social media is about engagement, and creating and sharing content is key to connecting with customers and other industry leaders. You may not realize it, but you, as a small business owner, are an expert and have sound advice and informed opinions to share.
When writing your own content, always maintain an appropriate and professional tone and use plenty of links to other sites, blogs or news articles to help illustrate your points. You can share this content on any number of places, such as on your own blog, a community blog, or on your Facebook or MySpace page.
- Keep everything connected. Once you've created your page on Facebook, or established your blog or Twitter account (or other online presences), cross-promote your content so that the same message is going out across every site.
For example, Tweet about your blog post or send a link in a message to your LinkedIn group. Many social media tools can be integrated. For example, you can display a Facebook badge or a Twitter widget on your blog or web site.
- Engage in the conversation. An online conversation is taking place right now about your business, your industry or issues affecting your community. Inject yourself and opinions into the conversation by following opinion leaders on Twitter and social networking sites and commenting on blog posts. Whenever possible, include a link back to your content or web site.
- Engage with customers. Your customers are talking about you online whether you like it or not on their blogs, consumer-focused web sites and review sites like Yelp, Yahoo! Local and CitySearch. While you can't take control of the conversation, you can help steer it by listening, engaging with customers and working to resolve any problems.

Angie Barnett is president and CEO of the Better Business Bureau of Greater Maryland. She can be reached at 410-347-3990 and abarnett@greatermd.bbb.org.