Small Business Marketing Kit For Dummies, 3rd Edition

Get Active Across Social Media

Right now, if you haven’t already done so, claim your name on every social network you may ever want to use, even if you don’t plan to use the network quite yet. Sites like http://checkusernames.com , http://knowem.com , and http://namechk.com provide free, almost instantaneous services for checking to see whether user names are available across social media networks. If the one you want isn’t taken, grab it.

Then start participating. Figure out which networks your customers use and make those sites your starting points. Also consider which networks those with whom you want to achieve awareness or credibility use, and get involved there, too. For networking, target-audience interaction, and search engine optimization, the dominant players are Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Google+. For retailers, restaurants, and others with strong visuals to share, Pinterest became an essential site in 2012.

If your business has a street location and customers who use mobile phone apps to look for businesses, move sites like foursquare (http://four square.com ) to the top of your list. And if customer reviews affect your business, claim pages on sites like Yelp (www.yelp.com ) and TripAdvisor (www.tripadvisor.com ), along with any industry-specific sites that affect your business.

Use Chapter 11 to help you plan your social media program, and be sure to add sites ...