Social Media and Small Business Communications


Social networking stock values are increasing along with an increased valuation for the microblogging platform Twitter. But for small business owners the main importance of social media lies in the tools it offers in a new era of small business communications. Here’s a look at what is changing your business marketing, networking and just about every other kind of communications you use, and the strategies you need to keep up.

Google Tools

Meet the new kid on the block. By all accounts, Google + is the search engine giant’s answer to arch-rival Facebook. But what will it mean to your business? Here we look at a review of Google + and how it works including all basic features. Is this a tool your small business could use/is using? Do you notice benefits over Facebook and other social media tools? Buzz Small Business Magazine

Google + will soon have small biz profiles too. That’s right. There will soon be yet another community on which to expand your small to medium sized business’s digital foot print. For more details including release date and thoughts about using Google + for your business, check out the post above. Small Business Trends

Twitterverse

Verified accounts now get added feature. It may sound like a very small development, but if you are a business owner with a Twitter account who is trying to monitor a huge number of followers, it’s going to be HUGE. How many of your followers do you follow back and how many would you ideally prefer to? Up until the present there was a simple reason to follow back all or most of those following you, especially if you used your Twitter account for business. Now, that may change. Sprout Social Insights

BackType offers Twitter business data. Twitter has acquired the analytics company BackType in a move expected to help business users of the microblogging platform harvest more data about the impact their Twitter activity is having within their extended network. The analytics provided should help businesses further quantify the effect their activity on Twitter is having overall. Enterprise Apps Today

Facebook Frontier

Social media hits prime time. Social networking giant Facebook announced reaching 750 million users on Wednesday and while some worry that trend setters have moved on robbing FB of its place on the cutting edge, the huge traffic the site still commands may be exactly what marketers are looking for. USA Today

Skype chat now part of FB offering. Matching a similar feature in the new Google +, Facebook has announced a video chat feature via Skype that will allow users to talk one-on-one with network connections. This and the Google offering will further expand the possibilities for face-to-face communications amongst small business owners and entrepreneurs and their customers, clients and partners. Which service are you likely to use? WSJ

Advanced Techniques

Social media stunts take Web presence to the next level. The idea of social media is to get fans, potential clients and customers to engage with your brand, but increasingly with  so many people in the space just getting hard just to generate attention for your brand or business amongst all the other voices out there. Enter Amy Martin of Digital Royalty who knows how to create some buzz when it’s needed. The Rise to the Top

So, how is your social media campaign going? It may be easier to figure out than you think. While success in social media can be notoriously hard to quantify, one good yardstick may be the amount of “influence” you wield on the social Web. A new generation of tools can help you measure this elusive quality in your social media efforts. What tools are you using to measure your social media efforts? Social Media Examiner

Case Study

How to do social media right. In this interview, we look at a brick and mortar business, specifically a restaurant, that has worked hard to create engagement through its social media presence. If you want to learn something about the way in which social media marketing can be used to really take your business to the next level, look no further. Get Busy Media

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  1. I enjoyed reading the case study on Get Busy, but I really wish there were more social media case studies of local businesses that are not restaurants or food trucks.

    The thing about food is that it’s inherently viral: people love talking about what they ate, sharing restaurant recommendations, and declaring themselves fans of restaurants. But they’re not as likely to seek out their dry cleaner or local drugstore on Twitter or Facebook, or to review them on Yelp or Google Places.

    As a local business owner who’s not in the food industry, I’m often frustrated by the lack of good advice in this area.

  2. With so many big companies trying to utilize Facebook and Twitter with their customers, you (as a business) really have to set yourself apart from the other businesses and do things differently, whether it be coupon/promotions for your products, free samples, or something entertaining.