Small Business Social Media: It’s All About Word of Mouth
To illustrate my “el barbero” example, here’s a picture of the search results for my location’s barber shops. Which shop do you wish you owned, based on the overall results? Reamir Barber Shop seems to be doing it right.
The initial registration is free. As you gain experience and monitor results, you can decide if you want to invest in any or all of them to execute premium-based services to strengthen your results.
How do location-based services and mobile come into the equation?
Increasingly, these searches are occurring while customers are “on the go.” Unlike my nostalgic childhood days, we never know when we will have the time for that haircut while we are running errands, so chances are we will look to our smartphones to find out where to go.
The results will be basically the same as your desktop search. The one critical difference is that the screen is smaller; therefore, you want to make sure you have done enough to bring your shop’s result as far to the top as possible. And here is where social and friends’ recommendations come into play. HereÂ’s a screen shot from my smartphone:
My recommendation to develop a Facebook page as part of your “get found” strategy will become more critical as Bing and Facebook integrate their users and search further. As seen in the picture, all of a sudden Reamir Barber Shop still appears lower as I scroll, but the first option is the Art of Shaving. Why? Because three of my Facebook friends have liked its page. I hope this shows you how search, mobile and location-based services, and social are interrelated. You should look at it as a holistic strategy and not different executions.
Moving Forward
Hopefully, you are now motivated to start creating a positive digital presence for your small business. Moving forward, take some time for the following steps:
1. Search for your business, and see if there’s anything being written about it.
2. Prepare your short description of the benefits/value you deliver.
3. Register your business in the sites recommended above.
4. Monitor how it appears and any feedback given by your customers.
5. Be responsive to relevant commentary.
As you gain experience, time and resources permitting, you could then identify promotional tactics that would enhance customer engagement. But this can only occur once you have a basic online presence covered.
Basically, social media is just a 21st-century representation of your childhood neighborhood. Just so happens that you carry it anywhere you go. It just takes a bit more work than having that 8 ½ x 11 sign on your barber’s porch and grandma’s recommendation.
More articles from Jesús Grana:
When Disaster Strikes Small Business
Social Success Strategy
Get Social
Cuban born, Puerto Rico raised and U.S. educated, Jesús Grana is a strategy and marketing professional with 20 years of CPG, technology and worldwide marketing experience. As a consultant, he is actively learning and testing social media strategies and tools to truly understand their capabilities and help his clients focus their efforts toward real performance and away from fads and hoopla. You can read more about him and his marketing thoughts in his blog at jrgrana.com.
