Small Business Marketing Kit For Dummies, 3rd Edition

Develop a Content-Sharing Program

Businesses that pull people to their online pages do so with useful, relevant, consistently presented information that takes time and discipline to create. If you have a blog (see Chapter 12 if you don’t), it’s the hub of your content-sharing program. You write posts and then share links back to your blog on all your social media pages.

Beyond that, share links to useful news articles, white pages, podcasts, and speeches you or others have given or attended. About the only rule is to share only information you believe is helpful, entertaining, interesting, humorous, or otherwise useful to your target audience. Don’t share just to prompt a sale; social media isn’t the place for sales spiels. Chapter 11 gives you more advice on using social media to interact with customers.

Commit to a content-sharing or posting schedule that ensures that you’re consistently visible online, with perhaps a couple of blog posts a week, a couple of Twitter posts a day, and a Facebook entry every couple of days. Involve your staff to help you share the burden — and the enthusiasm. Beyond that, participate. Engage in online conversations and share interesting things posted by others. Social media is about interacting, not talking to yourself or shouting out your own message.