Reaching out and Spurring Interaction on Social Media

Using Facebook, Twitter, and Google + to Market your Business

In recent years, the web has dramatically changed to a mode of interaction. Not surprisingly, Facebook has led the way in getting users to interact with one another. This change has made having a social media presence an absolute must for any small business. Having a presence on sites such as Facebook and Twitter, however, means a great deal more than having a profile and updating it periodically. Your business must spur interaction and this, in turn, drives traffic to your website and garners your business greater attention on the social networking sites.

Just a few months ago, the key for a small business was in establishing a fairly large following to which you could inform of latest blog posts, deals, and other relevant information. Recently, however, Facebook has introduced the new “talking about this” feature. This new development tracks other users and other applications (such as Twitter) which mention your business. This is extremely important in that it is a good gauge for your overall social media presence and whether or not your marketing efforts are fruitful.

One essential component to maximizing your “talking about this” status is to have your social media accounts all interlinked. Currently, there are applications that connect your Facebook account to your Twitter account in addition to your Yelp profiles and other vital networking sites. By having everything linked, your interaction on these other sites is reflected onto your Facebook profile. This interlinking has a pragmatic benefit: users on Facebook are easily directed to your other social media profiles. It also has the added benefit of encouraging others to interact. In other words, if it appears that your business is willing to interact frequently with customers, then users are much more inclined to follow you and interact themselves.

One simple way to optimize your business on Facebook is to develop a custom Facebook canvas or series of landing pages. Facebook Developers allows a user to create custom tab pages which distinguishes your brand and, hopefully, encourages more interaction from users. Increasingly, individuals are finding businesses on Facebook itself and it is important to ensure that you have as much relevant content on your profile as possible. Custom Facebook pages give you that added tool to inform and reach out to potential clients.

Of course, the recent social media revolution is greater tha
Facebook. Google + will soon be an absolute necessity (it perhaps is already) and will require just as much attention in optimizing and monitoring. Whatever the future brings, however, one thing will remain the same: social media is here to stay and the sooner your business reaches out through Facebook, Twitter, and the like, the better off you will be in the long run.