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Social Media Tips

There is a lot of talk out there about Social Media, what you may not understand is how to use Social Media with your own web site.  So we’re going to give you some tips.

First, in case you’re not aware Social Media means the social networking sites such as FaceBook, MySpace, Twitter and LinkedIn.

In our experience, the best tools are FaceBook and Twitter, and in that order.  Before you setup these accounts/pages you need to have a purpose for them.  Simply getting everyone to be your fan on FaceBook and setting up a twitter account and following 6 million people won’t do much for you.  Yes you need to get fans and followers but, more importantly you need a reason for them to want to see your updates.  You can use those tools to announce special offers, sales, new products and services and handy information.  People follow us on this blog, twitter and FaceBook to stay up to date on the web industry, get tips on managing their web sites and for good ol’ curiosity.   We’ve come up with a short list of steps to follow to having a more successful following.

1. Come up with some special offers and annoucements
2. Schedule your releases of those offers and announcements
3. Create your fan page on FaceBook, be sure to put your logo and contact information on the page
4. Post some photos and at least one offer or annoucement after you post your standard “Welcome to our page!”, if people check your page out and all they see is a generic welcome, you’re wasting your time.
5. Link your WebSite to the FaceBook fan page and FaceBook to your web site.
6. Create a Twitter account and link it to your site and your site to your Twitter page.
7. Place your Twitter account link in your e-mail auto signature
8. Start inviting your friends, family, colleagues, vendors, etc to your FaceBook fan page.
9. Be sure to mention your web site and other social media outlets in all 3 places, so people can find you using their favorite method.
10. Update your FaceBook fan page at least once a month and with something thats not too spammy and will be interesting.  If you post generic updates that sound cold and informal, people will click the Hide button and your fans will do you no good.
11. Update your Twitter account at least once a week.

If you like automation, you can setup HootSuite.com for free and update all places at once and in advance with their slick scheduling feature.  Or contact us and we can setup your web site to post blog posts and other updates automatically to your Twitter account and FaceBook page.

Now it doesnt stop here, you’ve got to check those accounts and pages, they dont run themselves and like I said earlier, just having fans isn’t going to do it for you.  If you follow these steps, it’ll help generate buzz and be a nice component to your marketing mix.  As with any marketing endeavor, adding social networking to your mix won’t immediately drive sales and change your life, but it helps with brand awareness and site traffic building.

Happy Webbing.