I truly believe you want to use social media for your small business. You recognize that social media is free marketing (or just about.) You know that social media drives qualified traffic to your website, and that it attracts the right kind of target audience. You keep adding it to your weekly to-do list. And you've already set up all your official business social networks at least a couple months ago, but you're just kinda sitting on them, keeping them warm. It's just, well, you always have more important things to do.
We get it. Sometimes you're too busy running your small business that you don't really have time to market your small business. Add the fact that social media is just so dang overwhelming. Sure, it's simple for your social "networking" (wink, wink), but from a business perspective, it can be quite overwhelming. There's just so much to do and you don't know where to begin.
Well, don't you worry about that. Today we are giving you five social network tricks to rapidly expand your small business social media following and influence for free with less than 15 minutes a day. Don't think you even have 15 minutes to spare a day? Maybe you should be doing this instead of advancing your Candy Crush or getting Facebook FOMO during your potty breaks...
1. A cheap Twitter party trick
2. Kiss some Twitter behind
Social media marketer Mandy Kilinskis gave her seven ways she "accidentally" grew her Twitter following. Mostly, she used Twitter to suck up, which I highly recommend dedicating at least 12 minutes of your weekly Twitter allowance to doing. Here's how Mandy did it:
- Tweet wonderful (and specific!) things about small businesses that share a similar customer base with you but are not direct competitors. They will probably Favorite and Retweet to their following.
- Reply to the big guys's questions. When any of their often more than a million followers Clicks to Expand, they'll see you. Plus, the big guys may RT you too. Both could encourage followers.
- Include "by @author" for anything you share. Us writers are just ripe with egos. We notice you care enough to share, which means we may RT something of yours, will certainly RT or Favorite what you shared, and will probably follow you ourselves.
- ReplyAll is encouraged on Twitter! Jump right into interrupt Twitter conversations. That personal contact will probably guarantee more followers.
I think this method could be applied not only to Twitter influencers but also to industry influencers you are trying to connect with that are actively using LinkedIn and GooglePLUS. You follow the same process as Twitter, making sure to use the @ symbol to connect with those you are connected with. They are more likely to follow you and to reciprocate.
3. Keep that LinkedIn Profile updated!
OK, to start, it takes more than 15 minutes to set up your LinkedIn Profile and LinkedIn Business Profile, but once they are done, simply get into the habit of plugging in any new project, new skill learned, new service offered, and any other tweak as soon as you think of it. It takes one to three minutes a week, but it dramatically affects how often you show up in search results. Just make sure that when you add these new interesting facts you add them with keywords to multiple places like:
- Your LinkedIn Summary
- A LinkedIn Update (fine for your personal profile or your small business profile)
- In your job summary
- A project you link to a specific landing page with a hand-written description
- As a Skill
Keywords matter in LinkedIn. LinkedIn is one of the most fabulous and free tools to get qualified leads and prospective customers finding you. The more often you mention a keyword, the more you show up in search results. This is a time when keyword loading is recommended, so long as you don't go too far so you seem inauthentic, unnatural or ingenuous. Way more than a C.V. or resume, your LinkedIn profile shows your humanity. Plus, I'm convinced that the more often you update your LinkedIn profile (even with minor changes,) the more often you show up in search results.
4. Take advantage of those free apps!
Social media marketing software is golden, allowing you to schedule all your social media ahead and usually offering you a Freemium version. William and (of course) Mandy both swear by Buffer, as the fastest way to share across Twitter, Facebook, GooglePLUS and LinkedIn, even making "suggestions" for what else to share.
Truth be told, I've only ever tried Hootsuite because, once I find an app I'm comfortable with, I'm quite happy not to have to learn another. And I really love how Hootsuite has improved its Hootlet over the last year so it seamlessly integrates within my social media and in my Google Chrome. This means I can be anywhere online when I see something interesting and then I can "autoschedule" the sharing of it on whatever is the appropriate of my social networking personalities on whichever are the appropriate social networks.
I have other friends who swear by Oktopost, Tweetdeck, and the newest to the social media stage Edgar. Of course, it doesn't matter which tool you choose, just find the one that's easiest for you to learn, so you'll actually use it on the regular!