In the previous installments of Social Media Marketing 101, we have gone through ways to establish your initial strategy and also covered the major social networks your small business may want to be on.

Now it is time to look at each one of them in detail. Let’s start with Facebook!

Facebook Basics

Facebook is big, bigger than any other social network out there. Unless you want to advertise, it is completely free t use. Anyone over 13 years old anywhere in the world may register on Facebook.

Here is the personal information you will need to provide to get started:

• your first and last name,
• a valid email address,
• date of birth,
• gender.

Once you register, you will be able to make all of these details as private or as public as you wish.

Everyone registered on Facebook has a personal profile. On the other hand, businesses on Facebook are represented by Pages or by Groups (more on that later).

Are you thinking, “May I create a business page without a personal Facebook account?”

Unfortunately, the answer is no. You cannot create any type of business presence on Facebook without registering a personal profile first. This used to be possible, but no longer.

Note that you also should not create an additional personal account to run a page. Facebook frowns on duplicate accounts and may suspend both without warning.

Even though you must have a profile, you do not have to use it actively in order to create and run pages. Your name will not be associated with your business page in any way. The names of page admins/contributors are not public and cannot be seen by anyone except admins and contributors themselves.

Facebook for Business: A Page or a Group?

Facebook Pages

Pages are official brand/business profiles on Facebook. They function similarly to personal profiles: they have a profile picture, a cover photo, pertinent business information and contact details. Admins and visitors may post updates, upload photos and videos to the Page.

A few things that set pages apart from personal profiles:

• A page is public by default. Admins may restrict access to it by age and by country (allowing/not allowing visitors from certain countries ).
• Anyone, excluding those restricted by admins, may like and follow a page.
• By default, anyone can publish to the page and upload photos/videos. Admins may restrict that ability by requiring post moderation prior to publishing. Visitors’ posts appear in a separate column on the right, making them less visible on the page.
• Visitors may review a page unless the admin turns that ability off.

Go to Page Settings to change any of the options above.

Facebook Groups

Groups are community- and discussion-oriented, so all participants’ posts carry equal weight on the main feed. Admins and moderators are in charge of groups, which may be public, private or secret.

• Public groups are visible in search and anyone may browse their contents.
• Private groups are also visible in search, but post-viewing is restricted to group members. Anyone may request to join the group; a moderator or an existing group member (depending on settings) will have to approve the request.
• Secret groups do not show up in Facebook search. Only existing members may add new members to the group, which may or may not be subject to admin/moderator approval.

Facebook Groups are an interesting beast. They are wonderful for building an online community of like-minded participants and for encouraging conversation. They are rarely a great choice for a brand to represent itself on Facebook.

Small businesses should be represented by a Facebook page, not a Facebook group. Small businesses should also never be represented by a personal profile instead of a page. Do not turn your personal profile into a profile for your business.

Setting up a Facebook Page

This actually couldn’t be simpler! Wherever you are on Facebook, you can look to the very right corner of the screen and click the little triangular arrow.

From the pop-down menu that appears, choose “Create Page” and follow Facebook’s prompts.

Everything from then on should be about your business, not yourself, so you should choose a page category and fill in all the information according to what represents your business best.

Upload your profile picture (your business logo is a great choice) and choose a cover photo. Profiles pictures work best in the square format. The recommended dimensions for cover photos are 851 by 315 pixels, but you may upload a bigger image and reposition it as you wish.

To edit any of the Page sections, click on the three dots under the page cover photo and go to Edit Page Info.

Invite your friends from your personal profile to get the first likes on your Page. It is easy: click on the three dots under the page cover photo and go to Invite Friends. You can select people to invite individually.

Facebook Page Best Practices

Do:

• Fill in the sections of your Page as much as possible. Write the business story, describe your products or services, indicate the year you founded the company.
• Choose a profile picture and a cover photo that represent your brand the best. Your logo should be present somewhere on the page. Cover photos may be a bit more creative to allow you to stand out.
• Provide ample contact details, including your phone number (very important!), your website, and a physical address if you are a local business.
• Post regularly: nothing looks worse than an abandoned Facebook Page!
• Invite your friends to like your Page. Some of them are already looking for what you offer and others will be happy to support you by liking the page. Get that like count started!

Don’t:

• Turn your personal Facebook profile into a business “profile”.
• Create another personal account for business purposes if you are already on Facebook.
• Post personal photos, status updates or videos on your business page. Keep it professional.

Try it out!

Facebook is such a robust platform that you can read volumes and volumes about it and still have something surprising left to discover. This post outlined the very basics of starting up on Facebook. As a small business owner, you will find that you can get a hang of the basics very quickly – you just need to start!

What Facebook functionality should we cover next? Let us know in the comments! ?

The post Social Media Marketing 101: Facebook Basics appeared first on SMM Headquarters.

Welcome back to Social Media Marketing 101! In our first post, we narrowed down your strategy and clarified ways in which you can approach social media marketing, depending on your business goals.

Today, we will discuss the next very important step of your social media marketing journey: choosing the social networks to focus on in your marketing campaigns! We will:

• cover six of the most popular social networks,
• list their advantages and special features,
• and help you decide which ones are best-suited for your business!

Let’s get started!

1. Facebook

Facebook is the largest social network on the planet with over 1.86 billion monthly active users. The platform has evolved over the years. Facebook users stay in touch with friends, family, and colleagues by posting various types of content (photos, videos, text updates, links). They also:

• follow and comment on news;
• connect with brands, businesses, public figures on various Pages;
• engage with like-minded individuals in public and private Groups.

Why your business should be on Facebook

The sheer number of active users should have convinced you already. In case not, Facebook refers more traffic to third-party websites than any other social network. Business owners can build beautiful, functional and content-rich pages to represent their companies on Facebook. Its advertising platform is also incredibly powerful, for which only Google Adwords is a valid competitor.

Why your business should NOT be on Facebook

You may want to consider investing your time in another social network (namely LinkedIn), if your business is in the niche that isn’t too marketable or palatable to wide audiences. An example would be a funeral home, a hospice or a collection agency. We are struggling to come up with another example. Convincing a business not to be on Facebook in most cases is playing devil’s advocate.

2. Twitter

Twitter is a micro-blogging public platform which allows users to publish messages of 140 characters or shorter (called “Tweets”). Anything and everything that can be expressed in 140 characters goes! Breaking news, commentary, opinions, live tweets of events, chatting with friends (called “Followers”)… Twitter is surprisingly versatile for what it offers. Most tweets are public, which makes it easier to discover interesting people and companies to follow.

Why your business should be on Twitter

If you create a lot of content like blog posts, case studies or articles, sharing them on Twitter is a great way to spread the word about your business. Twitter has made itself visually appealing and interesting by allowing images, GIFs and even videos to be attached to tweets.

If you are in a niche industry, you are likely to find peers and other professionals more easily on Twitter than on Facebook. Twitter is also a great customer service tool which allows you to monitor your customers’ feedback about your business and quickly respond to their concerns.

Why your business should NOT be on Twitter

If your primary goal on social media is to direct people to your website to make a purchase or an order, Twitter scores quite low in that regard. You are better off with Facebook (and using its ads). Furthermore, if not a lot of people offer praise or complaints to you on Twitter, it may not be worth your time to try to pedal it as a customer support channel.

3. Instagram

Instagram is a highly visual social network which focuses exclusively on photos and video content. It is used for sharing photos and videos that users mostly take on their phones. It has also become increasingly commonplace to share high-quality professional photography, comics, illustrations and other entertaining visual content.

Indeed, a lot of brands are able to effectively connect with their customers through photo sharing on Instagram. Instagram feels immediate and personal, and harnessing that humanizing feel has brought many brands huge success on the network.

Why your business should be on Instagram

If your company has a strong visual representation of its offering, Instagram is perfect for you. Fashion sellers, cooking schools, bars, restaurants, travel agencies, book stores etc can all benefit! It is a lot easier to get discovered on Instagram by potential customers than on Facebook or even Twitter through the use of hashtags (clickable tags like #Instagram or #socialmedia).

Why your business should NOT be on Instagram

Being highly visual, Instagram requires a steady stream of high-quality visual content to keep your followers engaged. It also does not make it easy to share other people’s visual content, the way Pinterest does.

Unfortunately, some businesses simply do not easily translate into visuals. For example, an accounting firm would have a hard time making Instagram work. It will be unlikely to find clients through it. It can still have an Instagram account to publish photos of team retreats or client success stories, but that is a different use of it entirely.

To put it simply, if you can’t immediately think of ten images you could post on Instagram about your business, reconsider it as your main choice. Place your focus on Facebook and Twitter, or another niche network, instead.

4. Pinterest

Pinterest is a social network of beautiful images (called “Pins”) organized (or “pinned”) into collections (called “Boards”). Just like Instagram, Pinterest is a very visual medium. It got its start as a DIY and interior design heaven. Today it has grown into a powerhouse of visual inspiration, tips, and instructions on travel, fashion, food, gardening and anything else you can possibly imagine. Pinterest has a monthly active user count of 150 million, with the demographic being very female-dominant (85% of users are women).

Why your business should be on Pinterest

If your brand has a visually appealing side targeting Pinterest’s core demographic, it could be a great choice. Unlike on Instagram, you can layer your brand presentation, building up from a single Pin to a whole Board. You may also include keyword-rich product descriptions and attractive clickable links. Pinterest ads (Promoted Pins) may help you reach a wider audience, increase engagement with your content and send more traffic to the website.

Why your business should NOT be on Pinterest

You should look critically at your product and decide if it can be represented well on the medium. See above for examples that wouldn’t do well on Instagram, as Pinterest is similar. Visuals are key!

If you have plans of casting your social media net really wide, building a Pinterest presence using your existing content is doable. If you are looking for one or two “big” ones to focus on, and Pinterest does not seem like a natural choice, keep looking.

5. YouTube

YouTube is a platform for user-uploaded videos featuring an incredible range of talent producing all sorts of videos. How-to videos, comedy sketches, and even short action films attract over a billion users. Every registered user has an option of starting a channel to upload videos (for free) or simply use her account to interact with videos on the platform. YouTube has an advertising platform that allows content creators to place ads before, after or in the middle of their video clips.

Why your business should be on YouTube

According to Shareaholic, YouTube drives the most engaged traffic of all the social networks, period. If your company can afford to invest in the creation of videos about your product, you should be on YouTube. (Put simply, if you can only say it in a video, YouTube is for you.)

For sure, a lot of different businesses in different industries can attract a lot of views and generate genuine engagement by putting up videos to help or to inspire prospective customers. The key is figuring out whether the benefits of producing videos for YouTube will outweigh the costs of their production.

Why your business should NOT be on YouTube

If you want to test the waters of sharing videos with your customers, look into Instagram first. See if the video format is the right fit. Do not dive into YouTube head first only to abandon your channel a few months later.

6. LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a social network where professionals come to, well, network. Think of LinkedIn as Facebook for your professional connections. You have a personal profile which focuses on your career and professional skills, effectively acting as your online resume. You can choose to restrict access to your profile fully or partially. LinkedIn is actively used by recruiters to hire employees.

Why your business should be on LinkedIn

LinkedIn has 450 million users, with 25% consistently active on the network. LinkedIn stands apart from all the other social networks discussed because its nature is not inherently entertaining. Instead, it focuses specifically on work, career search, and (especially) professional services. Therefore, if you feel that every other network is not “serious” enough for your business, LinkedIn may be for you. Another reason you may want to consider building a presence on LinkedIn is its robust B2B advertising and publishing capabilities.

Why your business should NOT be on LinkedIn

As a business, you have limited platform functionality. Businesses are represented by Company Pages that do not yet live up to the standard of Facebook Pages. Apart from being present purely from a brand image point of view, you will likely not benefit from it if you are a small local business or an eCommerce website. B2C tend to have better results on other social networks. That said, you as a business owner should definitely have a LinkedIn profile!

So Which One?

Above, we talked about Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram which offer the most diverse set of uses suitable for many small businesses. We also covered YouTube, Pinterest, and LinkedIn, listing their advantages and niche uses.

Your business does not have to be on all six. In fact, we strongly encourage you to pick just one or two to get started. Keeping your social media goals in mind, study the list to decide which ones are the best for you.

• The Facebook + Twitter combo is very common.
• Instagram + Pinterest is a great choice for highly visual brands.
• Twitter + LinkedIn would suit a service professional perfectly.
• Only Facebook? Good.
• Just Twitter? Depending on your industry, it could work!

Which one will your business go for?

Stay tuned for Part 3 of Social Media Marketing 101!

The post Social Media Marketing for Small Businesses: How to Choose Social Networks appeared first on SMM Headquarters.

Social media is the marketing buzzword of the decade. As a small business owner, you have probably heard many people, experts and regular folk alike, touting the importance of being on social media. You may not be on social media, but you may already be convinced your business should be.

Should it?

The short answer is: yes, it probably should. If you have the means, you need to take advantage of this great marketing channel that can be very effective if used right. Any business can benefit from building a better connection with its customers and establishing authority in its market by mingling with industry peers online.

Even if you are not aiming that high (yet), you need some basic skills and understanding of how social media works to start carving your own piece of this enormous pie.

All this tweeting, posting and snapping may look daunting. It will take some time to get a hang of it if you have never tried Facebook or Twitter before. But trust us: you will learn quicker than you think. Your small business stands to benefit, so you will give it your best shot.

Welcome to Social Media Marketing 101!

Let’s begin by covering the first, and the most crucial, step on your marketing journey: the overarching strategy of all your future marketing efforts.

Your Marketing Strategy on Social Media

Before you dive head first into learning to plan, post, schedule and engage on social media, you need to settle on the big picture. Namely, you have to answer these two questions: Why? For Whom?

• What is the reason behind you wanting to get on social media for your business?
• Who will be your target audience?

Then and only then may you confront the big question of How. If you do not think about the strategy and do not define your audience and your goals right now, your efforts are bound to be haphazard. Choosing the social networks will be tough and your content schedule will likely lack structure.

No one wants that! Your time as a business owner is extremely valuable! If you are choosing to learn to do social media marketing by yourself, it is doubly important to stay laser-focused. Strategy first, tactics second!

So…

Why?

• Why do you want to be on social media?
• What are you hoping to achieve? What are your goals?

Ultimately, a presence on social media has to be valuable to you. It has to contribute to your bottom line, even if indirectly. It has to play a part in reaching your business goals. Even if you are doing it just because everyone else does, you need to think critically about what you could achieve with your online presence.

Social media may help you grow your audience and convert leads into buying customers. You could start taking the first steps towards that by:

• Regularly publishing often-changing details of your business like the location of your food truck, your business hours, table availability for dinner reservations. Social media is a perfect tool for this.
• Communicating with customers in real-time about their experiences or issues. Nothing is more real-time than social media, except possibly phone calls!
• Sharing behind-the-scenes of your business and just plain getting social with your fans, customers, and prospective clients to build trust and credibility.

Whatever your goals for being on social media are, outline them clearly. There may be one and there may be twenty. Keeping them in mind will help you answer the next question, namely…

For Whom?

• Who is your target audience on social media?
• Whom are you hoping to reach and with whom to interact?

If you are sitting here thinking,  “Pfft, my customers, of course!”, that’s a great start! However, you may want to reach other people on social media too. How about:

• prospective clients,
• potential business partners or investors,
• suppliers,
• your employees,
• fellow business owners,
• and maybe even your competitors?

The type of content you put out there will really depend on whom you are trying to reach. Yes, it is unlikely you’d want to focus on impressing your competitors (you shouldn’t anyway), but you may well want to post information that would be valuable both for your customers and suppliers, for example.

Keep in mind also, that being active on social media puts your business into the public eye. All your posts, regardless of social network, may be seen by all of the people we outlined above. This is not a bad thing, but rather a reminder to always be professional and sticking to your brand voice.

Why + For Whom = Goals

Now that you have answered the Why and For Whom, put the two together to form one or a few clear social media goals.

How do your goals and reasons for social media presence connect with your desired target audience?

Think about the answer and write it down.

• “I need my craft brewery business to increase walk-ins and grow weekday sales.”
• “It is time for my accounting firm to build brand visibility and attract investors to scale my business.”
• “I would like my coffee shop to grow the number of loyal customers.”
• “We want to generate buzz for our new eCommerce business before launch and connect with potential suppliers in the process.”
• “As a professional writer, I want to seek networking opportunities and project leads.”

Etc, etc, etc!

Look at the statement you came up with. This is your strategy. You will be trying to achieve exactly this on social media. This is what will inform the choices of social networks to be on. This is what you need to keep in mind when coming up with tactics, with posts, with calls-to-action. It may change in future! But for now, this is what you came here to do.

Congrats on taking the first step on your social media marketing journey as a small business owner!

Read Part 2: Choosing Your Social Networks

The post Social Media Marketing for Small Businesses: Your First Steps appeared first on SMM Headquarters.