Don't want to take the Dive into Social Media? That's OK... Just get your Feet Wet!

Don’t Want to Take the Dive into Social Media? That’s OK, Just get your Feet Wet!

Written on November 21, 2007 – 1:43 am | by Shana Albert |

If you are a Small Business Owner the thought of Social Media Marketing can be very overwhelming. There are so many options out there for Social Media Marketing that the already very busy Business Owner might shy away from Social Media all together.

Since S ocial Media is so important to see the true potential of your Web Business I want to show you some some ways that a Small Business Owner can start getting their feel wet to Social Media Marketing without taking a huge plunge.

Add Social Networking Buttons to your static Webpages

There is no reason that only Blogs should enjoy the benefits of Social Bookmarking buttons. Static Websites can benefit from this social media marketing activity as well. Social Bookmarking is a way that users can tag their favorite sites with different keywords which help them to organize the content. Tags help others find your content and to help search engines see your content.

Adding Social Bookmarking Buttons to a Web Page will make it very easy for someone to bookmark an article or product from your website. When a page from your website is bookmarked it makes it very easy for your webpage to be shared with others on the web. Plus, it is another way for search engines find a link to one of your webpages and spider your site.

Check out these Social Bookmarks. Choose which Social Bookmarks fit your Website’s content best.

Start Commenting on Blogs

Commenting on Blogs is a great way to get Incoming links to your Website. The more links you have coming in to your Website not only brings in new potential customers and clients, but it can also move you up in the search engines.

Making comments on Blogs is a great way to not only increase incoming links to your website, but it is also a way to get the attention of the readers reading the blog post and the blogger himself. If done correctly and often enough you might even become a known expert in your field or niche. Check out Lifehacker’s guide to weblog comments for lots of great Comment Tips.

Participate in Answer Sites

Participating in Answer Sites, such as Yahoo! Answers and Answers.com, is not only an excellent way to get links coming in to your site, but it is another wonderful way to become known as an expert in your field. Make a point to spend some time on one of the major answer sites and answer the questions that you know you have the correct answers to. Place a link to your site in your Profile and you will find not only will people look towards you for their answers, but they might even become frequent visitors to your site. This form of social media marketing is excellent if you are a service based small business. Choose an Answer site that you want to work with and spend at least an hour or two there each week to reap the true benefits of this type of Social Media Marketing.

For more information check out Yahoo! Answers, Answers.com,

Social Networking

Social Networking is a way of interacting with other people in a web community setting. These web communities can be niche specific (professional, dating, pets, friends to name a very few) or the communities can be very broad (StumbleUpon, Digg, MySpace). The whole point of any of these Social Networking Sites is to help form relationships between people with a common interest from all over the world.

For a Small Business Owner utilizing a Professional Social Networking site, such as LinkedIn, is so important. With Professional Social Networking sites you will be able to create your Business Profile which summarizes your professional accomplishments. Within your Social Networking Community you will be able to locate clients, find Business opportunities, search for jobs, discover connections, locate former colleagues, clients, and partners and locate other professionals with the same interests as you. It is very similar to Business Networking in your Local Community, but you are not limited to location. You will be networking with professional people from all over the world.

Check out some Other Social Networks not Mentioned above.

Have Customers Review you Online

The major search engines have come a long way when it comes to local search. Google supports searching by IP address. Which means that Google can target according to the geographical locale of the searcher’s IP address. This is great news for small businesses who make their living by selling items or services to people in their community or surrounding communities. If Google and the other major search engines have your Business in the local search engine directory it could bring you to the top of the search engines in your area for your keyphrase or niche.

To make sure that your business will appear in the local search for your area make sure to go to the following links and submit your Business address, phone number and other business information. Many people no longer use phone books to locate local businesses, they use the Web to find them. Make sure they can find you too. Click on the following links to Local Search Engines, Directories and Yellow Pages and enter your Business’s information.

Google Local Business Center
Yahoo! Local - Add a Business
Localeze (MSN’s Partner) - Add a Business
Local Search Guide - a list of local search engines, directory sites, and yellow pages

While you are adding your Business listing to the above Local Search Engines, Directories and yellow pages do a bit more research to see which of these also offer reviews. Once you have done that follow the simple steps below to have your customers review your business.

Go through the listings above to see which have review capability.
On a Postcard or Index card simply ask your customers if they would like to review your business. Make sure to include a link to one of the Local Search Review sites on the card. You can even offer them a coupon or discount off a future purchase for your review.
Send these Review Cards out to your Customers.

Many of the above Search Engines, Directories and Yellow Pages will show your reviews next to your Business Listing. If you have great reviews this could bring you a lot of extra business.

Twitter

If the thought of starting a Blog seems frightening at this point, but you wanted to participate in something that lets you stay in touch with your customers or clients… maybe Twitter is for you.

You don’t have to be a wiz at writing to use Twitter as you will only have 140 characters to get your point across. But with a bit of Networking on Twitter to find the right followers it might be the perfect place to announce sales, new products, or services. For more information on using Twitter as a Marketing Tool check out The Big Juicy Twitter Guide. Here Caroline offers you detailed information on how to use Twitter.

All of these Social Media Marketing Ideas are a wonderful way to get your business name out there, increase your incoming links, and increase traffic and sales. All of these Social Media Activities take some work. However, if your time is limited or you feel apprehensive about jumping head first into all the Social Media Activities that are out there, just try one of them and see how it goes. Get a taste of it. If you find you enjoyed it and it brought you increased traffic and/or sales maybe add another Social Media activity. You can do as little or as much as you would like. No need to feel intimidated by Social Media…. do it at your own pace.

Technorati Tags:social media, social media marketing, social networking, social bookmarking, small business

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19 Responses to “Don’t Want to Take the Dive into Social Media? That’s OK, Just get your Feet Wet!”
By Nick James on Nov 21, 2007 | Reply

Some great advice, Shana.
Commenting on other blogs is indeed a great way to build a profile and, of course, backlinks, and one I’ve been wary of doing up until now, for fear of accusations of spamming. But my confidence in this whole social arena has grown tenfold over the past few months (in the past couple of weeks particularly) and I now realise there are more like-minded and friendly individuals out there than there are the trollish, aggressive type. One has to put any self-doubt behind them (the same goes for when publishing blog posts), and as long as they’re contributing to the post with their comment (whether it be a witty aside or thoughtful insight) and not simply plugging their site, there’s no reason to experience such foolish insecurities.
As always, an excellent post.
By kelvin newman on Nov 21, 2007 | Reply

Good job explaining some small steps everyone can take, though I always worry when people encourage people to add the bookmark icons.

Usually ends up with a cluttered design and no traffic!
By Gyutae Park on Nov 21, 2007 | Reply

These are great ideas to get anyone started in social media. A lot of times people think it’s easy but it actually takes a lot of hard work to get noticed in the space.
By Drew Stauffer on Nov 21, 2007 | Reply

Great write up Shana. It seems like everyday there’s something new to check out or get into. Social Media can easily become overwhelming.
By Tony Adam on Nov 21, 2007 | Reply

Shana,

Loved the post and the tips!!

Tying into the Answers piece above, I’ve been using LinkedIn answers a lot lately, and have noticed spikes every so often.

Just added you via RSS as well!

Cheers!
- tony
By Risa on Nov 22, 2007 | Reply

Shana, Did you write this post just for me? OK - no more just reading about social media. Right after Thanksgiving I’m making time to dive into this thing (or it will definitely be a New Year’s resolution). Thanks for the tips. Risa
By Shana Albert on Nov 23, 2007 | Reply

@Nick James - Thanks for the great comment. I still experience plenty of insecurities…. I am certainly not passed them. Even though I participate heavily in Social Media I try to push past any insecurities I might be feeling at the time. I will discuss this further in another post.

@Kelvin Newman - I Totally agree with you on this one.

@Gyutae - Thank you so much for stopping by and leaving a comment. Social Media is a lot of work, but it can be rewarding in so many ways. Participate in the social media activities that you can handle and when you can handle more add a another activity. Sometimes I feel Small Business owners feel that they have to do it all or nothing. But, that’s not the case. I’m glad you enjoyed the post.

@Drew - So true!! Thank you so much for leaving the comment.

@Tony - I am glad you enjoyed the post and subscribed to my feed. Always nice to hear.

@Risa - Good to see you here again, Risa. Dive right in to Social Media…. the water is perfect!!
By Charlie Anzman on Nov 23, 2007 | Reply

Great piece (from a fellow ‘PA person’
By Shana Albert on Nov 23, 2007 | Reply

@Charlie Anzman - I’m so glad you enjoyed the article. Always cool to meet a fellow blogger from my area.
By Glen Allsopp on Nov 24, 2007 | Reply

I definitely think the top ‘Start Commenting On Blogs’ is a great one. I’ve had a lot of success with this personally and after encouraging clients to do the same.

Nice post shana
By Michael Lodispoto on Nov 24, 2007 | Reply

You have some great advice! As a relative newbie to sites like Sphinn, Andybeard.com and the whole social media arena, I find that people like yourself who offer real advice far more interesting. There is one of your friends over at collective thoughts that is not so direct. I won’t mention names it’s just that I as a new blogger ( very new - only like 3 posts) I prefer real people’s advice like your own. Now I’m not blogging for money at all, just to make contacts and expand my network of online friends. Reading how great someone is over and over and they offer no examples of why except to say that they did this or that but never give the sites they did. That is so annoying to me. I own off-line businesses and have been pretty successful. Now I’m starting to dive into social media big time. I just have to tell you that you are really good! I will be reading your blogs often.
By the way, I fist clicked on your from the mybloglog photo I saw on other sites like Andy’s, who I also love for his directness. Social media can be overwhelming but like you and others have said, if you are good a a party and mingling, you’ll do fine.
I have an offer for you ( for $ and/or trade) this coming week that you may find interesting. Talk to you or e-mail with you soon.
By Ange Recchia on Nov 25, 2007 | Reply

Thanks Shana for these helpful tips! I never thought to add bookmarking buttons to my static pages. There is always more to know than what you think! Commenting on blogs and building a community has certainly helped getting traffic to my little space of the web

Cheers, Ange
By Shana Albert on Nov 25, 2007 | Reply

@Glen - Thank you so much for stopping by and adding your input. I’m glad you enjoyed the post.

@Michael - I’m glad you enjoyed the post. I’m fairly new at the Social Media as well. That’s actually what this whole blog is about… My desire in learning about everything Social Media and Web 2.0. I have been a Webmaster since 2001, but only started participating in Social Media a short time ago. Not only have I found I loved it, but it works so well for increasing traffic and meeting some incredible people in your same niche. That is what I was trying to get across in this post…. if you are new to Social Media some of the activities might seem odd or feel strange at first, but start slowly and delve deeper into Social Media when it feels right.

@Ange - So good to see you here. Yes, Bookmarking buttons are not only for blogs…. they work well on static pages too!!
By Jens Larsen on Nov 28, 2007 | Reply

Thanks for the ideas, now I have a few new ways to promote my websites.
Cheers,
Jens