The last few days I have written a few posts on social media.  This subject has been on my mind recently because an old client has asked me to make a product specifically on social media for small businesses.  His clients are small businesses and it is easy for him to find:

• Success stories about how big companies use social media
• Social media for the affiliate marketers and get rich quick crowd
• Information on how to set up social media platforms

But there is not much available to help the small business owner find out how to use social media for his business.

I run a small business in France and use social media to connect with international markets. Here is a link where you can read about my first social media success on Twitter.

In my recent articles here on this blog, I explained how I got quick results with social media through strategic communication, the role my cross-cultural skills played and the social media tactics I use.

Today I read an article on Business.gov asking for small business to share their social media successes and failure.  The questions in this article bring my recent articles into perpective.   So I thought I would share the answers here with you.

What is it about your use of Twitter, or blogging, or Facebook, or video, or any other combination of social media tools and tactics ,that you believe makes them actually work for your small business?

Results come from a great strategy. This means strategic content. You also need to learn as much as you can about your clients on these platforms and how the synergy works to get your strategy right.

The people who do not get it are usually lacking in these areas. You can read more about my experience here:

• 7 Cross-Cultural Skills For Businesses To Master Social Media
• Content Marketing To Reach International Markets
• 12 Social Media Tactis In My Marketing Plan

What does not work?

Inadequate people skills. If you want business results, you must learn good people skills without bringing in too much personal baggage.

I encounter many people who do not realize how much they let their personal likes and dislikes interfere with their business objectives on social media. Some people simply have a very hard time separating the “personal” from the “business” while still connecting with people on a more social level.

Wrong business objectives on social media. Another big problem for businesses is that they do not realize that they need to adapt their business goals to find the right fit for social media and then adapt this for each social media platform.  The difficulty for most businesses is that these objectives will evolve as they learn more about the people they want to connect with on social media.  The variables include:

• How the business might want to connect with people
• Everyone is evolving on social media, expectations and what is acceptable or appropriate also evolves

This means you need to be flexible  in adapting business goals or objectives for social media. And it also means that you need to jump in and experience the social nature of social media before you can find the right business objectives for your business.

How do you manage your time around all this?

First of all, I do not get into fancy tools. I set up my monitoring system to fit in with my usual business routine.  This is absolutely critical.  Otherwise I would not get anything done.  It is also one of the things that helps me to stay business focused.

A clear strategy also helps me to decide what I do where.  For example:

• Create content for my blog, Twitter and Posterous
• Use social bookmarking for online networking and to find useful resources
• Use social media RSS feeds for a wider social presence

A clear strategy also helps me to:

• Decide what content I put on each platform
• Re-purpose my content
• Use links to third party content
• How to use each platform to connect with people
• Where to deepen relationships

Everything is fairly flexible.

• Search never gets sidestepped, but often only takes a few minutes a day and is integrated with my first morning coffee routine.
• My blog is a daily top priority, it rarely gets bumped off the daily to-do list.
• But the other daily and weekly activities do move around a bit to fit my schedule.  This is why I have clearly identified strategic small tasks that are easy to do in small doses throughout the day.

I use social media during my “down” times throughout the day, and have regular patterns, so it is easy to get back on track after busy spells elsewhere.

Any social media activity that requires a large chunk of time is scheduled for a Saturday morning.  And things do get postponed to another Saturday morning to fit my family priorities.

How do you use social media for your business?

• How do you manage your time on social media?
• What social media tactics work best for your small business?
• What do you struggle with on social media as a small business?

Please share your thoughts and comments below.  I think that all small businesses can benefit from hearing what others do and what works for them.

More on Social Media In International Web Marketing

• How Do You Use Social Media For Business?
• The Cultural Divide In The Social Media Evolution
• How Cultural Differences Impact International Social Media
• How To Sort Through The Social Media Hype
• It Is Business-To-People In Social Media Marketing
• How Do You Use Social Media For Small Business?
• 12 Social Media Tactics In My Marketing Plan
• 7 Cross-Cultural Skills For Businesses To Master Social Media
• Content Marketing To Reach International Markets
• Choice Of Social Media For International Markets
• Connecting With People On Twitter
• Cultural Differences In Social Media Marketing
• Guerrilla Marketing With Social Media To Enter New International Markets
• Likability For International And Social Media Communication
• New Marketing Taints Old Networking Tactics
• Social Media Marketing Across Cultures
• Understanding Social Media For Stronger International Web Marketing

Photos from Shutterstock.

  Filed under: social media for business

Cindy King

Comments

• bizsugar.com · 7 August, 2009 · 

  How Do You Use Social Media For Small Business?…

  What is it about your use of Twitter, or blogging, or Facebook, or video, or any other combination of social media tools and tactics ,that you believe makes them actually work for your small business? What does not work? How do you manage your time aro…

• 

  Tanner Christensen · 7 August, 2009 · 

  The biggest moving point I’ve made to clients who are interested in using social media to grow their business is this: it only takes 5 minutes a day.

  Doing it on your down town is fine, spending 1 minute out of every work hour to do it is fine, just doing it is fine. It’s the businesses that setup accounts and then automate them, or never update them, that suffer. Think of your social network friends like real friends (or clients), if you just take five minutes everyday to call them up and see how they’re doing, you’re investing in the relationship. That person is even more likely to use your services again because you’ve taken the time (the small amount of time) to build the relationship.

  It should be common sense, but for a lot of people: it’s not.

  • 

    Cindy · 7 August, 2009 · 

    It’s true that it is easy to start off small and a consistent presence is the best. But I also think that businesses rapidly grow beyond the few minutes a day. When a communication strategy is good, when you are connecting with people who want to talk to you, this will bring in contacts that require more than 5 minutes to respond to

    And then there is the real relationship building stuff to do on top of the social networking. I like to try to contact or phone one new social media contact each day and this can easily be an hours conversation if it’s on the phone. Of course, my own schedule does not always allow this, but it does add up. Luckily with the time difference, these calls are at the end of my work day… so down time for me once again.

• Investment In An International Business Blog · 8 August, 2009 · 

  [...] How Do You Use Social Media For Small Business? [...]

• It Is Business-To-People In Social Media Marketing · 11 August, 2009 · 

  [...] How Do You Use Social Media For Small Business? [...]

• How To Sort Through The Social Media Hype · 11 August, 2009 · 

  [...] How Do You Use Social Media For Small Business? [...]

• 

  Susan Oakes · 13 August, 2009 · 

  Cindy,
  I agree that it needs to be part of a communications strategy as it is a tactic and the involvement depends on a number of factors.

  That said my blog and visiting other blogs are the priority (although not today as I had problems with website to fix). I am new to Twitter and I am taking it slowly to learn and refine how I interact with others. Like all things in small business it is part of the journey, just don’t rush and see what works and what does not work so you can refine your efforts.
  .-= Susan Oakes´s last blog ..Are you Falling Into The Marketing Diet Trap? =-.

  • 

    Cindy · 13 August, 2009 · 

    Hi Susan,

    I find it interesting to see how different small businesses find slightly different tactics to work for them. It’s true that it is a step by step process. I could not imagine a small business jumping in and successfully doing several tactics all at once. It just seems impossible. I found that my personal likes and dislikes influenced my path greatly. Or should I say the areas where I have patience and the areas where it is lacking

• The Cultural Divide In The Social Media Evolution · 15 August, 2009 · 

  [...] How Do You Use Social Media For Small Business? [...]

• Likability For International And Social Media Communication · 23 August, 2009 · 

  [...] How Do You Use Social Media For Small Business? [...]

• How Do You Use Social Media For Business? · 7 September, 2009 · 

  [...] How Do You Use Social Media For Small Business? [...]

• How Cultural Differences Impact International Social Media · 20 November, 2009 · 

  [...] How Do You Use Social Media For Small Business? [...]

• Understanding Social Media For Stronger Web Marketing… International Too · 6 December, 2009 · 

  [...] How Do You Use Social Media For Small Business? [...]