Social Media for Small Businesses

Shawnee Love   •  
January 6, 2011

I love social media (SoMe). I can’t say whether it drives viewers to my site, nor have I made a connection between sales or revenue and my SoMe efforts. To be honest, I don’t care that much because for me social media is all about the conversation and connecting with like minds and/or learning from those whose opinions differ.

I also love it because you get out of social media what you put into it. There’s no magic pill or surgical procedure to create it overnight. I don’t think deep pockets guarantee you status in the social media world, and contrary to what some people believe, I don’t think you can hire someone to do it for you, at least not effectively. Personally, it drives me crazy when I find out a famous person hired someone to tweet for them, and I don’t follow or like on principle.

Social media is about being authentic and engaged in the conversation without controlling the agenda. Sure, we all want our wise words to go viral and be viewed and shared amongst millions and of course we want to turn that into revenue, but the reality is, overnight success takes years and a lot of hard work to get there.  Social media keeps us honest and I love it for that even more!

I highly recommend clients allow and even encourage their employees to be active on social media. Yes, they still have to get their work done, but your company will benefit if employees:

  • Tweet, post, and like things that are relevant to your business,
  • Generate awareness (of stuff you want known),
  • Build community around your brand, and
  • Speak positively about your organization and its products or services.

In the 21st century, employees can be a major competitive advantage and social media is a way to leverage that advantage to its fullest capacity.

Are you on board this ship or will it sail without you?