The latest in small business social media trends shows moves that will transform the way we all market our businesses and network in the small business community. How do you use social media to market your small business and how do you see that evolving in the future? Leave your comments below:
Social Media Rules
Are you using social media etiquette? You know that social media is important to your small business, but are you engaging correctly with others in social communities? Remember that failing to show etiquette when engaging with others via social media can damage your business and your brand. FamousBloggers
What can social media truly teach us about customers? We all know that one of the benefits of social media is learning about our customers and their reaction to our business, good and bad. But how much can we truly learn about the sentiments of others from Twitter and Facebook? Small Business Trends contributor Pierre DeBois has a reality check. AllAnalytics.com
Networking Innovations
Peer marketing may change social media forever. It may change the way that businesses market in just about every other channel, too. For a long time, marketers have known the importance of peer influence on customers. But a peer influence model focuses on harnessing these forces as never before including in the world of social media. gigaom
Google Plus gets games. The announcement that the search engine giant is adding games to its new social network, spawned a response from arch rival Facebook which plans an upgrade to its own gaming features. The question for serious business users on both social media platforms: How does this impact the use of these channels for marketing, networking and communications? What do you think? WSJ
News & Issues
Are the big social sites a danger for your privacy? Just because your a small business owner using social media for marketing and networking purposes doesn’t mean you’ve given up your right to privacy. Concerns over privacy issues connected to Facebook are nothing new but recently another social network has been under fire and one with even closer ties to the business community. WSJ
Criticisms of social media unfounded. Another place social media has unfortunately been in the spotlight lately is in discussions over its role in recent riots in the UK. But such discussions, and the suggestion that social channels should actually be shut down during periods of unrest, ignore all the good social media has made possible and its importance to small businesses in these communities as they struggle to rebuild. CNN
Basic Tips
Want to know the ROI of social media? It’s a common question these days. Businesses are beginning to understand the importance of social media in developing a strong brand message. But social media takes time and effort meaning, even if the Websites themselves are free, there is cost to implementation. Wahine Media
How to get started. So you’ve made the decision to move ahead with a social media campaign for your business. But where do you begin? Social media marketing, like everything in your business, should be implemented systematically. Here are some suggestions about how to get started on a social media campaign and how to implement the proper steps. Search Engine Optimization Journal
Conclusions
A primer on social media spam. Though social media is certainly a great way of marketing your small business online, the method you use in promoting your brand is extremely important. As we shared near the beginning of this roundup, there is an etiquette to this form of communication and one of the major taboos is spamming. The Marketing M8 Blog
Getting real about social media. Probably the biggest problem with social media is the perpetuation of myths about it, some of them generated by those with a vested interest in the field. While many of the tips you may hear for getting started with social media might have their merit, few are absolutes. It’s important to separate fact from myth here. Forbes
