Maximizing Social Media

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By Ben Jabbawy

Maximizing Social Media When Your Are Self-Employed Or Are A Freelancer

Spring of 2012 is here and it’s time to wake up and smell the blossoms. For those of you who wondered if buzzwords like Facebook, Twitter, Yelp and LinkedIn would ever go out of season, think again. These services are here to stay. Whether you’re prepared or not, your customers are linking to, reviewing, sharing and searching for your business online. When you are self-employed or are a freelancer, you simply must maximize your social media.

The way to think of social media is as a near and dear friend who can grow your business and contribute to your bottom line

As such, I challenge you to step up and face social media, not as a mysterious black hole that dwells in “the cloud”, but as a near and dear friend who can actually grow your business and contribute to your bottom line.

Here are a few quick tips for maximizing social media for your small business:

  • Understand which networks are more relevant for your customers and focus your energy there. i.e for B2B, it may make more sense to focus on LinkedIn. For B2C, probably best to be on Facebook and Twitter.
  • Save time and streamline your updates with all-in-one tools like Hootsuite.
  •  Offer your fans and followers incentives to become customers. Running your own promotions on Facebook, Linkedin  and Twitter can  grow your audience and help spur shares, likes and retweets.
  • Set weekly goals to help asses your progress. Review your results often, and adjust them over time.
  • Don’t forget to share the love. By following those who follow you, and connecting to similar businesses and even competitors, your social media pages become more relevant.
  • Don’t be shy. Asking your fans and followers why they connected with you can help focus your time and help you generate better content to satisfy customer expectations.

Lastly, a hint of advice. Remember that the Roman Empire wasn’t built over night. Just like we’ve seen with earlier online marketing trends, achieving your social media results takes dedication and consistency.

– Ben Jabbawy is the entrepreneur behind GetPrivy.com. Privy lets clients control their own promotions by granting them access to a simple web-based dashboard where they create and change deals, acquire new leads, and view analytics to inform future deals. The deals are distributed through the business’ website, social media properties, and email distribution lists.