By Tasha Cunningham
In today’s BizBytes column in the Miami Herald (If you missed it, read it below), you learned about several South Florida small businesses that were doing social media the right way and setting themselves apart from the pack. Now let’s take a look at five common blunders that small businesses make with their social media strategy so you avoid doing the same thing yourself.
- Posting too little, too late. One of the great things about social media is how instant it is. Posting on Twitter or Facebook literally takes just a few seconds. But many small business owners fall into the trap of posting too little, too late. For example, if you know that today is President’s Day, which it is, you should have already started posting your sales and promotions to your fans and followers at least a week in advance to have an impact. Waiting until the day of is going to diminish your sales potential as your customers are already know where they’ll be spending their money today and it’s most likely with your competitor. To avoid this, plan ahead and figure out well in advance how you’re going to promote your sales and discounts on social media.
- Not responding to a negative post in time. This is one of the most common blunders small businesses make. If you see a negative post about your product or service on social media, don’t wait to respond. If you can respond within an hour of the post, you’re showing the customer how much you care and letting your fans and followings see how willing you are to correct the problem.
- Not knowing the ins and outs of how to communicate on social media. There’s a right way and a wrong way to post on social media and if you haven’t learned it by now, it’s time to get started. You need to understand what a hashtag is and when to use it versus a direct message (DM) on Twitter. On Facebook, you need to understand how the Timeline feature works and how to promote your posts if you want to. Check out a book called Social Media for Business: The Small Business Guide to Online Marketing by Martin Brossman to get you started.
Here is Tasha's Business Monday column:
5 case studies on small businesses doing social media right
By Tasha Cunningham, tasha@bizbytes101.com
Small business owners often find it difficult to carve out the time to maintain their social media feeds, much less keep up with the latest trends, tools and rules to get the most bang for their online marketing buck. Last month, a survey of 835 small businesses, conducted by the Wall Street Journal, found that a whopping 33 percent spend no time on social media marketing, while 48 percent of those surveyed said they spend one to five hours per week on it. Like most small businesses, 60 percent revealed they did not have a specific employee dedicated to maintaining social media platforms for their companies.
But in South Florida, there are small business social media success stories all around us. From cupcake shops to furniture stores and hair salons for kids, companies are using a do-it-yourself approach to social media to engage customers and drive sales. Let’s take a look at five them to see what they’re doing right and what you can learn from them to make your social media marketing efforts a success.
Modern Home 2 Go
What it is doing right: This company, with two locations in Fort Lauderdale and Miami’s Design District, sells modern contemporary furniture. It uses its Facebook page to cleverly collect customer data and build an e-mail list. By creating a custom “Join My List” tab on the page, they’ve created an easy, non-intrusive way for current and potential customers to stay in touch. When you click on the tab, you don’t get the standard contact form asking you to fill out everything from your name to mobile number, there is only one simple box where you enter your e-mail address.
What you can learn from Modern Home 2 Go: Collecting customer data doesn’t have to be hard or intrusive. You can use social media to collect information from e-mail addresses to mobile numbers, but you can do it in a way that won’t turn consumers off to your product or service. Check out Modern Home 2 Go here: www.facebook.com/modernhome2go.
Buttercream Cupcakes
What it is doing right: Since 2009, owner Jose Cuellar and his wife Kristine Graulich have maintained their Facebook page themselves. “We do it this way because of the responsiveness factor,” said Cuellar. “By keeping it in house we’re able to respond to posts quickly”
At Buttercream Cupcakes in South Miami, Cuellar and his wife respond to most Facebook posts within minutes. “If we had hired a firm to do it for us, I’d have to call them, wait for the response and it would take much longer,” said Cuellar. “Instead, we’re able to post something new and interesting more frequently.”
What you can learn from Buttercream Cupcakes: Consumers love responsiveness and it’s an essential part of keeping customers engaged in social media. Don’t let posts sit for more than 24 hours without a response. If you can, try to get back to those who post on your page within the same day. Check out Buttercream Cupcakes here: www.facebook.com/buttercreamcupcakes. Mention that you read about them in The Miami Herald and get a free cappuccino today.