Social media tools for small businesses - a Keynsham seminar

Facebook is just one of the Web 2.0 or social media that

have exploded onto the web in the last five years or so but how can we use such

tools for business? A seminar held at community@67 in Queen's Road, Keynsham on

12th January focused on that question. We can't cover the entire

seminar here so this article concentrates on Facebook to give a flavour of the

information presented at the event.

Some of the best known social media and those with the

largest user bases are Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and LinkedIn.  Other social media with slightly different

aims and use are 'location-based services' such as Foursquare and Google Places

which allow people with mobile devices such as smartphones or iPads to see

which organisations or places are geographically close to them and also to add

review information or simply to gain contact details and see a map. Blogs also

form an important part of social media and, in my view, are either set to

replace traditional websites (many people are using blogs instead of websites

today, and can be set up to have a look and feel of a standard website) or to

run alongside them.

As I'm a user of most of these tools, a search for my name

in Google demonstrates how search engine friendly such social media can be.

Four of the first five entries are from social media; the sixth result is my

own website.

When we think of Facebook most of us probably think of a way

to send messages and share photographs and thoughts with friends. However, it

is increasingly also being used by brands and interest groups to create

networks of interest, to promote special offers and as another forum for

customers to get in contact with companies. 'Find us on Facebook' is

increasingly the strapline of choice on print and TV adverts, rather than a

website address. Facebook claims over 800 million users (if it was a country it

would be the world's third largest) with 30 million of those users in the UK.

Demonstrating the rise in use of mobile devices such as smartphones and iPads,

over 350 million of people use Facebook through a mobile device[1], at

least some of the time. There is also a rapidly increasing number of 'Facebook

Pages' being claimed by businesses. It's free to set up a Facebook Page and

there are some nice features which you can use such as creating a questionnaire

to foster engagement, publicising an event or emailing up to 5000 people with

encouragement to be a fan of your page to receive updates from you. Facebook

Pages are publicly available to find via search engines but to use them and get

the most functionality out of them you need to join Facebook and 'like' them ie

become a fan.

In order to ensure your Page's postings are seen, posting

daily or more frequently is seen as essential. But getting the balance is key –

each posting must fit in with your brand's personality and be interesting and

engaging to avoid being seen as spam. Postings which encourage sharing such as

competitions or funny content will help to ensure your stories are given a

higher ranking and that content is passed on to help you gain more fans.

If you would like a copy of the 20-page whitepaper from the

event, or to find out about upcoming seminars, simply email catherine.dhanjal@theansweruk.com, visit www.theansweruk.com or call her on 0800 998 7990/0794 166 9925.

[1]

http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics