I love finding good articles regarding social media because they tend to make my blog writing much easier. Not that I’m inexperienced in writing my social media articles from scratch, but it’s definitely nice to get another point of view once in awhile.
I came across an article on soshable.com recently that discusses social media tips for local businesses. Patterson Riegel Advertising certainly takes pride in being a local Fort Wayne business. When my dad started this business 23 years ago he made it a point to only stay local to ensure he’d never have to travel with work and leave my family behind. Anywho, I’m beginning to get off track… This article mainly gives local businesses tips on jumping in to the social media circuit. Most of these tips I agree with, others I don’t. But then again, not all forms of social media are for every business. What I’ve come to learn is social media is definitely not a “one size fits all” model.
Take a look at these tips and judge for yourself:
**Remember, this content is from here: http://soshable.com/10-social-media-tips-for-local-businesses/ **
Here are 10 tips so your local biz can reap the benefits of social media:
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First make sure that people on Facebook can “check-in” to your business when they drop by. This is especially popular for eating establishments and bars. You want your check-in linked to a Facebook page.
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Register your biz with Foursquare as well because they now give you access to the names of all of the people who checked in to your business so you can study their behavior as a customer and target them more directly.
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Get ready for the all new Facebook graph search which allows people to find local businesses according to the likes of its fans. This feature is currently available a limited number of accounts, but it’s coming our way soon!
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Give your business a voice by opening a Twitter account. Tweet about local events and about customers that drop by. Also ask (give incentive to do so) customers to tweet about you or post a status update about you on Facebook, that way their friends become your audience too.
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Enhance your LinkedIn presence- LinkedIn profiles rank highest in Google searches of all the social media, higher than FB even. So get your profile listed there if you haven’t already, especially if you are a professional who owns a local business. Keep your profile updated and join groups that deal with your industry and/or location.
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YouTube is the 2nd largest search engine so create and upload any type of compelling, hilarious, or smart tutorial videos, special event coverage, creative employee features, etc. Ask your customers to upload their videos to your YouTube channel and offer rewards.
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List your business at Yelp, which combines local-based reviews with great social features. People go on Yelp to see what others are saying about stores, venues, public spaces, dentists and so much more. You need to keep track of the Yelp conversation about your business and make sure future customers like what they read.
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Organize regular meetups, workshops and other informal local gatherings that are related to your business. Promote these events on Facebook, Eventbrite, Meetup.com, SkillShare and other platforms. People will be happy to attend if they feel like they get an added value – information, access, discounts or networking.
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Image is everything! Attach photos wherever you can in your tweets, Facebook updates and blog posts. Take snapshots of everything that you associate with your brand and upload them to your sites. Snap photos of your customers/staff and post them on Instagram. Don’t forget to tag the people in the photo, so they have a good reason to share it too.
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Blog weekly about your local business. Not about the business itself, but about the experiences and events, news and interesting information surrounding your niche. Focus on rich content and optimizing tags and titles in each post for search engines. Linking in and out of your blog builds both direct and indirect traffic to your business.
I guess the biggest ‘beef’ I have with this article is the first and second bullet. Coming from an advertising agency, not many people find the desire to ‘check-in’ to our business. Let me tell you, becoming the Mayor of Patterson Riegel will get you nothing but a pat on the back. However, if your business happens to be food or retail this Four-Square option is definitely a good suggestion. People love FREE!
Patterson Riegel Advertising is a local full service advertising agency, specializing in all facets of advertising, including consumer-based retail, business-to–business marketing, public relations, promotional services, social media marketing and more.