A few weeks ago I went to a great free event up in Manchester, ‘Social Media Marketing for Small Businesses’. The event was organised by Our Social Times, and I was hugely impressed as it was packed full of useful tips. The speakers were Luke Brynley-Jones, Anissa Starnes and Tammy K Fennell, and if you want to stay up to date with social media trends, I reckon adding them on Twitter is a good first step!
Ever wondered how often a small business should Tweet? I certainly have. Apparently, to find the answer to this you need to think about how many people your followers follow! If they follow thousands, and you tweet once a day, it will get lost. However, this doesn’t mean you need to bombard your followers with Tweets. Three or four a day is optimum.
Also, when it comes to Twitter, you need to channel Machiavelli and Becky Sharp. Try to connect with influential people, who are respected in your industry, and who have lots of followers of their own.
The speakers also recommend that you use Twitter as a way to capture the moment of excitement that occurs when a customer receives your product. This could be a snapshot of them opening the parcel (using Twitpic) or something a little more thought out: perhaps ask them to pose with the product in unusual locations to win a prize.
Pinterest, the online scrapbook, was also discussed in detail. As this infographic (I love an infographic!) shows, Pinterest is gaining lots of followers right now. It’s a particularly good place for anyone offering anything craft-based or visual (such as cake companies, fashion designers or artists) to showcase their work.