Social media marketing has taken a major role in businesses of every size. Large corporations often have an entire team dedicated to their social networking. This can be costly, and for small businesses, just isn’t an option. Instead, small business owners have to hire one person to work on the social media aspect of marketing or even have an employee (or themselves) put some part-time effort into it.

This can lead to poor results on your investment of time. So, let’s look at how you can make the best out of your efforts in social media marketing for your small business!

Talk to your customers. Find out where they spend the most time in social media. You don’t want to launch a wide scale effort in all social networks if the majority of your customers are only on Facebook. Start small and grow from there. Look at what your competitors are doing on social networks and give yourself an idea of what you should be doing too.

Learn what you can. You don’t have to be an expert to go social with your small business. There is a goldmine of information available out there, so do some research and soak up all that you can learn. Find out how to set up a Facebook page and Twitter account; the best ways to build up your fan base; how to engage through social media.

Make realistic goals. Figure out exactly what it is you want to accomplish right now. How will social networking help you get there? Don’t go in with your eyes closed and hope to reach a couple thousands new fans in a week. It takes time to reach great heights, so be patient and enjoy the climb.

Seek out a professional. If you can make it work with your budget, hire a social media expert to show you the ropes. These people can help mentor you and give you the knowledge and confidence you need to make the best of social networking. Don’t go with the first person you see who declares himself a “guru” of the industry. Get recommendations and read reviews. Find someone that has proven results.

Rework your advertising strategy. Newspaper advertising is on the decline, so if you’ve been using this as your main source for marketing your company and haven’t gotten the results you hoped for, it may be time to consider cutting down on that area in your budget. Look at all the areas where you spend money and see what funds can be moved around to your social marketing budget.

Embrace the opportunity. Social media can level the playing field between your small company and the big guys. At one time, the only way to reach such a broad audience was through national television ads. Not something many small businesses can afford even once. Now, you can reach people across the country and it costs you more time than money in many cases. All of your employees can take part in marketing the business. You can engage customers and encourage brand advocacy among your fans. This is a way to reach far more people quickly and easily.

Think “long-term” benefits. Using social networks will bring you more long-term results than short-term benefits. You will be building customer loyalty and broadening your reach. If you simply circulate coupons, that only gets you short lived results. Focus on the future of your company and what it will take to sustain it.

When you look at the big picture, your small business can gain the maximum benefits from social marketing. You don’t have to have the budget of a multi-million dollar company to get the most out of this strategy. With effort, patience and a plan, you can achieve epic results for your business.

Are you just getting started in social media? What steps are you taking to get social with your business? What do you need help with? Share with us!

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Facebook Offers is an excellent tool that you can use to promote your business through social media. Offers let your business deliver a great deal each day into your fans’ News Feeds. These types of deals are similar to a Groupon or LivingSocial offer without having to go through an outside website.

Facebook Offers can easily spread virally from one fan to another. Users can share the offer directly with their own friends and family when they click on the offer. If they choose to claim the offer, a post will automatically go into their timeline about the offer too.

Setting up a Facebook Offer is quick and simple. Let’s go through the process from start to finish:

1. Open your Facebook Page. On the top left side of your timeline, you will see “Status,” “Photo/Video,” and “Offer/Event+.” Click on “Offer/Event.”

2. Select “Offer.” Once you click on “Offer/Event,” a dialogue box opens up listing “Offer,” “Event,” “Milestone” and “Question.” Choose “Offer.”

3. Start your offer. After you choose “Offer,” a new dialogue box opens. This is where you prepare your offer to be posted.

Put Together Your Offer

You will upload an image to be used in your offer. This should be a simple picture of the product being offered. If you are offering a service, try to use an image that reflects that. For example, if you are providing a free week of lawn care you might choose to use a picture of a man mowing.

Next, come up with an attention-grabbing headline. You want this to be your call-to-action that gets users to click on and claim your offer. For example: “Free lawn mowing for the first 25 Burleson residents!”

You will then need to select the number of offers you will allow. You don’t want to leave this open and discover that you don’t have enough supply to meet demand. You can choose to make this number large or small. Having a smaller number will give users a sense of urgency in order to claim the offer before it runs out.

Set the Expiration Date for your offer. You can set it to expire at any date, whether it’s one day or one month.

Set your Terms & Conditions. Make this fit your business. It can be one offer per person, per visit, per group, etc.

Post Your Offer

Now that you have set all of the requirements for your Offer, you are ready to post. Simply review the Offer and click “Post.” This will add your offer to your timeline. Users will be able to see it in their News Feed.

Users Redeem Offer

If your fans want to redeem your offer, they just have to click “Get Offer.” A dialogue box will pop up stating that a message was sent to their email address (registered with Facebook). They can then print the offer or bring their smartphone into your location to show the message in order to redeem.

Promote Your Offer

Once you have your offer set up, start promoting it! Post about it on Facebook. Notify your newsletter subscribers. Share it with customers in your shop or restaurant.

Though Facebook Offers have been around since February, they have not been widely embraced by businesses just yet. This is an opportunity for any business to snag more customers easily and will soon catch fire.

Have you started using Facebook Offers for your business? What are some ideas for daily deals for your business? Share with us!

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