Everybody’s doing something in social media these days. But like all forms of marketing that came before and all those that will come next—not everybody’s making social media work for them.
Here are some common mistakes made by small business owners. Are you making them in your freelance design business?
Social Media Basics You're up to speed on social media 101. Put out good content, ideas and/or offers that your audience will care about on a consistent basis. Make it meaningful and professional to boost your credibility. And by all means, proof it! Below are five tips to take you beyond the basics so social media can drive your business and create results.
1. Me too, me too!
There is one common reason I hear late-to-the-game small business folks say is their justification for finally jumping into the social media world: Because everyone else is. That’s not good enough. If everyone else was going to jump off a bridge… The question isn’t, “how can I be like everyone else?” Instead, it’s “how are the smart people using social media to grow their businesses?” An even better question for you, “How are smart designers using social media?” These are the questions that matter. If you’re serious about social media, start there. And just for fun, and maybe to generate some ideas, you can check out Mashable’s Presenting: 10 of the Smartest Big Brands in Social Media.
2. Strategy anyone?
Like every other marketing tactic, your social media strategy has to be integrated into your overall plan. For some targeted thoughts on your strategy, check out the 2010 Designers’ 8 Step Marketing Plan.
Determine how you will use social media to integrate into your other marketing activities, such as face-to-face networking, email marketing and other activities. And be sure it ties together with other social media you may be doing, such as blogging. There are lots of opportunities here. Always think of your social media activities as advancing your cause, never as some other activity you have to do.
3. Stay the course
Once they’ve defined their social media strategy, the other pitfall I see frequently is the inability of entrepreneurs to stay the course with the game plan. “Dabbling” can be dangerous. Avoid the temptation to go from tool to tool based on the perceived flavor of the week. Instead, do your research and spend your time in the right forums. Then focus on building your communities there. You’ll never build momentum by going from one tool to the next.
4. Be creative
For social media to work, your community has to care about what you’re doing. This means it’s about much more than pushing out content. It’s about engaging the audience. Also from Mashable, here are 5 Small Businesses Successfully Using Social Media.
These provide some excellent ways to utilize different social media tools to be creative, get attention and get results.
5. Don’t focus on social and exclude everything else
No social media tool, no matter how great the hype, will solve all of your marketing challenges. Facebook alone probably won’t encourage people to flock to you.
Sure, it can help, but you can’t focus all your marketing attention on social media. Social media needs to support your other marketing efforts, not replace them. Again, it’s part of an overall strategy, integrated into your sales process and aligned with how you do business.
About the Author
Becky Sheetz-Runkle is a marketing strategist and copywriter, and an advocate for measurable marketing. She’s based in the Washington, D.C. metro area and can be reached at [BLOCKED].
