Top 10 Tips For Getting Started With Social Media Marketing

I am grateful to Becky Holland for this guest Top 10 of tips to help you if you are starting out in using Social Media Marketing to promote your business.  Becky teaches basic social media classes at local libraries and is currently writing a book on the subject for computer novices.   You can connect with Becky on all her social media sites and more by following the links on the “About Becky” page of her blog… Becky Holland

You’ve decided to jump into social media marketing.  Perhaps someone told you it was the latest thing, or you know a competitor gets a lot of business that way, or perhaps your clients are actually asking you to get online.  Whatever your reason, effectively using social media marketing for your business involves more that just setting up a Twitter account and tweeting your business specials.  In order to make the most of social media, you need to be prepared, have a plan, and create a strong foundation.  The following is a list of the top 10 things I believe you should do to create a successful social media presence.

1. Clean up your online image.

This is probably the most important step, and yet often overlooked.  Have you ever “Googled” yourself?  If not… you should.  Head over to Google, type in your name and see what comes up.  You might be surprised.  Remember that MySpace account you created 5 years ago, with the photos your friend tagged you in, from that one night you got totally wasted and passed out in the pile of dog poop?  Yikes!  You may have forgotten about it long ago, but your customers and potential networking contacts will very likely Google you, and they will find it all.  Clean up any information online that you don’t want the world to see… and delete entire accounts if necessary.  Don’t assume that anything you put online is private or too old to show up… it never really is.

2. Figure out your branding strategy

You are about to create an online empire of sorts.  You want everything to coordinate and you want everyone to be able to distinguish your sites from all the others.  Select a color palette, theme, photos you want to use (including a nice photo of yourself), company logos, etc.  Place copies of all these items into a special folder on your computer… I call mine “Online Empire”… so that you will not need to search through all your files to find the appropriate materials as you create your profiles and pages on various sites.  This will not only save you time, but it will help create a distinct brand online and help keep things consistent throughout all your sites.

3. Start a personal Facebook profile

I know many of you are thinking that you just want your business online, not you.  Well… think again.  You are your business, and unless you’re in the witness protection program, you should have a Facebook profile for yourself if you are planning to be conducting business online.  You don’t have to do anything with it yet, except fill in the basic details, configure your privacy settings, and make sure to add a clear picture of yourself from your “Online Empire” folder.  Facebook is the largest social media site out there (over 400 million members and growing rapidly) and a great place to network and connect with people.  You don’t have to tell the world everything about yourself… just create a place where people can come learn a little more about you as a person.

4. Create a Twitter account

Many people are confused by Twitter, and so they avoid it entirely.  After all, even Shakespeare would have trouble getting anything across in 140 characters or less… so how can you possibly use it?  Well, right now you don’t have to… just set it up.  You can create an account using your personal information (with your name as your user name) or one for your business (with your business name as the user name).  If you create one with your name, use the same photo you used on your personal Facebook profile and if you create a business account, use a company logo.  It’s very important to always add a photo to any profile you create and at least some basic information.  This is social media, not hide-and-go-seek.  People want to see who they are dealing with.

5. Create a blog

You might not think you have anything important to say right now, but someday you will.  There are tons of free blogging sites out there, but my favorites are Blogger and WordPress.  Both will allow you to customize your blog and make changes without disturbing any content you create.  You can host your blog on your own domain (www.yourname.com) or just host it free on Blogger or WordPress.  Name your blog using your name or company name.  Again, add your photo/logo and some basic information.  We’re not adding content at this point, just setting everything up, so once you’ve done that… it’s time to move on.

6. Create a LinkedIn account

Have you ever asked for references from someone and then upon checking them, been suspicious that you are actually talking to the person’s grandma or best friend instead of a previous client? LinkedIn is a great way to get professional looking recommendations for both you and your business.  You will be setting up another personal profile here, so use your name, not your company name.  You will again add that same photo of yourself, and add in some basic details (including your company information).  LinkedIn will now tell you that your profile is about 20% complete and urge you to add in a bunch of additional details… don’t worry about this, you will be completing it later.  Only add the information you are comfortable sharing with the world at this point.  Once you add contacts, you will be adding past jobs and asking for references.

7. Create a Facebook Public Page

So you have a Facebook profile already (see #3)… what the heck is a public page and why on earth do you need one?  While your profile is all about you, your public page is all about your business.  It is public because anyone can connect with it, without your approval.  You can create one for your company, or you can create a public figure page for yourself, or both.  Whatever you choose, make sure you again add your photo/logo and your basic information.  Your page is created in the same way you created your profile with a few minor differences.

8. Make connections with people you know

Now that you have all of your accounts created and your basic information (and photo or logo) added, you are ready to connect with people you already know.  People prefer different sites, so you may find some people on Facebook, some on Twitter, some on LinkedIn, and some on a combination of more than one site.  Go ahead and add these people to your friends/followers/connections lists.  Really look at their profiles after you add them… what information are they sharing, what have they added to their profile that you could add to yours, what are they doing that you don’t like?  Also, pay attention to what they are posting.  This will give you a good idea of what kind of content you will want to add to each of your sites when you get going.  At this point, only add people you know offline… it will help you get comfortable using the various sites.

9. Start creating content

Once you’re comfortable and have some friends added to your sites, it’s time to add some content.  If you’ve never done this before, it might be intimidating, but you can do it!  Remember, even if you are promoting your business, you want to start by getting to know the people in your network before you sell to them.  The best way to start adding content is to respond to the content of others.  Comment on that baby picture someone added (Aww… how cute), congratulate someone on an achievement they posted (Way to go!), or suggest a related/helpful website when someone is looking for something (You’re son likes Legos?  Look at the cool Lego site I found…).  If you’re confused about what kind of content goes on which site, read my article “Maintaining Multiple Sites” to clear things up some more.  It’s ok to take this slow… this is not a race.  The most important thing is to start participating and learning about each of the sites you’ve set up and how they work.

10.Start networking

Once you are completely comfortable and active on a particular site… meaning you have established your core group of offline contacts, created valuable content of your own, added in some additional details to flesh out your profile, and are using the site regularly… it is time to network there.  You might not start with all sites at the same time and that’s ok.  If your Facebook account is flourishing, but your LinkedIn is still at only 20% complete, then network on Facebook.  If you’ve found you are great at Twitter, but can’t write more than 140 characters at a time to create a blog post, network on Twitter.  Find people with similar interests and connect.  Don’t just add random people to collect people and make your numbers big.  You are creating your core group of supporters now, and these should be people you really want to get to know and work with.

By slowly working through this process you will create a very strong social media marketing foundation.  Once that foundation is created, you can use it to promote any business venture you choose.  You will likely add additional sites according to your personal needs, and may delete some others.  It’s like building a house… if the foundation is strong, you can make a lot of changes to the visible parts of the house on top of it without hurting the foundation.  If necessary, you can even tear down the whole thing and rebuild and the foundation will remain intact.  Don’t be intimidated with the process.  Just take it one step at a time and before you know it you will be socializing and marketing online like a pro!

Thanks to Becky for a really interesting and informative post.