Social Media Tips & Tricks

Social media isn’t just for celebrities and teenagers. It can be a cost-effective way to spread the word about your services. Through social outlets you can reach potential customers, reward loyal followers with offers and develop a personal relationship with your clients.

With so many social sites to choose from, it can be hard to decide which ones you want to be part of. Don't feel like you must have a presence on every site. Choose the sites that fit your company best. If you have someone who is willing to make multiple updates a day, Twitter might be your space. If you feel more comfortable posting a few times a week and like to share photos, then Facebook might be better for you. See below for some of our favorites.

Show Off
Don’t just say it, show it! Photos add a lot of personality to posts and lend credibility to your claims of craftsmanship. Facebook is a great place to share images and build photo albums. Twitter also has many photo sharing tools.

Don’t forget to include videos in your social media plan. Keep the videos short and informal. Your videos can give tips, show off a finished project or showcase your range of products.

Customer Service
Current and potential customers might use your social spaces to ask questions, give a compliment or lodge a complaint. Check your pages frequently so you can address these posts in a timely manner. Don’t be afraid to take on a complaint. Doing so in a courteous and proactive manner goes a long way to showing your followers that you care about their business.

Word of Mouth
Encourage customers to review you on Facebook. Create business cards that have your social handles on them so it's easy for them to find you. Repost snippets of your best reviews and thank your customers for providing feedback. These reviews might be key in a future referral.

All Hands on Deck
Enlist everyone in your company to help. It might feel like establishing a social media presence will be too time consuming, but it doesn’t have to be. Ask your employees to take photos, offer tips and submit interesting links. Stockpile this content so you can use it on days when you need help with post ideas.

Keep it Causal
Drop the marketing speak and industry jargon to make your posts and tweets conversational. You'll come across as more genuine and approachable and your content will stick with your followers longer.

Have Personality
Develop your own style and remember, that style should match the tone of your company. Whether you reach your customers through flyers, emails or social media, the voice should all be the same.

Keep it Short
Twitter caps you at 140 characters so you can't help but be concise in your message. When posting on Facebook, don't get too wordy just because you have the space. Studies show that your posts are more likely to be read if you keep them short. Focus on one message, be concise and provide a link if you want to deliver more in-depth information.

Deals and Offers
Reward your followers with exclusive offers and special coupons. Entice your customers to follow you on Facebook by offering them a downloadable coupon when they "like" you. Or make your posts even more compelling by occasionally offering "flash" deals, specials and offers that only last a limited time.

Get the Word Out
Facebook ads can be an inexpensive and effective way to get the word out about your services. Facebook allows you to target your audience by interest, location and other factors and you can set a budget that you're comfortable with.

Which Social Site is Right For You?

Twitter Twitter is a microblogging site that allows users to share 140-character updates called tweets. Businesses use Twitter to offer discounts, keep their customers updated and build relationships. Twitter is a great customer service tool for businesses too. By conducting simple searches, businesses can reach out to consumers and address their issues, both good and bad.

Facebook Originally created as an online networking space for college students, Facebook has since expanded to support businesses and their marketing efforts. Businesses can build pages, post updates, create custom tabs and utilize Facebook ads to reach a broad audience.

Google+ Founded in 2011 by the search engine powerhouse Google, this service has recently allowed businesses to create pages to endorse their products and services. Some terms unique to Google+ are “circles,” “hangouts” and “+1.”

YouTube This video-sharing website allows users to upload, watch and comment on user-submitted videos. Examples of videos businesses might want to share are commercials, DIY segments, webisodes and interviews. For optimal results, videos should be kept to five minutes or less.

Flickr Owned by Yahoo, Flickr is an image-hosting site where users can store, and later link to, photos and short videos. Businesses can organize their images into sets for easier sharing and create groups that others can become members of. Purchasing a “professional” account allows for greater storage access and larger video uploads.

LinkedIn A social networking site dedicated to professionals, LinkedIn allows users to make connections with people they’ve had previous professional relationships with. Businesses can create profiles, which users can follow, and post job openings and announcements.

Tumblr  Similar to Blogger and other blogging platforms, Tumblr allows users to create a “tumblelog” where they can post text, images, videos, links, quotes or audio. Tumblr is a microblogging site, lends itself to curation and is very easy to access and use via smartphone.

Pinterest Currently one of the newest and fastest growing social sites, Pinterest encourages users to create a personal vision board via Pinterest’s photo-sharing platform. Users can create themed boards to organize their pins and follow their friends to find out what inspires them. Businesses can post pins they find inspiring on their personal social sites (blog, Twitter, Facebook, Google+, etc).

Angies’s List While not officially considered a social site, Angie’s List is an important tool for consumers to evaluate businesses. The website aggregates verified consumer reviews and assigns a report-card-style grade to service providers. Businesses should encourage their customers to review them on Angie’s List.