I don’t know about you but social media can be overwhelming! How can you possibly be everywhere and have success? I’m going to give you my take on social media and which avenues I use for the most success with my businesses.
With over 1 billion users, I imagine everyone reading this post has a personal Facebook page. Some people use that for business as well but I like to keep my personal page separate. That’s where I connect with old high school and college friends as well as new people I meet and even ones I do business with – because I tend to become friends with them as well.
The next step would be to create a company page. I have two you can check out, CastMedic Designs and PR for Anyone®. Facebook has really changed their algorithims and who gets to see what (unless you are willing to pay) so I don’t invest a ton of time here anymore. I like to interact with my followers but they don’t always see it, so I limit posts to 1 or 2 per day.
Now we’re talking! Twitter is THE place to connect with really… anyone! Where else can you reach out to a celebrity and maybe hear back? Twitter is a great place to connect with journalists. The key here however is to build a relationship. Think of Twitter as a cocktail party. You get to know each other first. I wouldn’t connect with a journalist and then go right into your pitch. Get to know them. See what they talk about. Comment, like, and share so they get to know you. Then knock them out with a great idea!
This is another one of my favorites and one I think is greatly underused. It’s basically a big business conference. People are on LinkedIn to do business. Start cultivating that network. You’ve connected with these people based on your business and how you met them through business. In my opinion, these are all warm leads. Stay in touch with your LinkedIn connections and see where those relationships may lead.
I think this is the hidden gem among social media. Looking at Google Analytics tells me that Pinterest is my #2 traffic generator for both companies. So Pinterest is generating tons of traffic to a product site AND a service site – WOW! That’s a pretty telling sign that Pinterest is a place you want to be!
I’ve been dabbling in this a bit but have decided that for CastMedic Designs, a product-based business, I NEED to be on Instagram. This is where people share pictures and who better than to share pictures than people in decorated medical boots, right? I probably missed out on a lot of opportunity with Instagram in the past year but better late than never. I’ve joined the party!
YouTube
Last but not least is YouTube. If you aren’t making videos for your business, now is the time to start! Video is IT! Looking at statistics, it turns out television is disappearing as more and more people are looking to digital media. All you need is an i-phone and some good lighting and you’re good to go with creating video content. I’m upgrading my channel in a few weeks but go ahead and subscribe so you get your PR Tip in a Minute delivered to your mailbox every week.
Let me know what you’re doing with social media!
To Your PR Success,
This was one good read! 🙂 except that we use the terms ‘Favorite’ & ‘retweet’ with Twitter 🙂