Don’t Forget About the Little Guys
As social media continues growing at an unprecedented rate, most people focus their attention on the giants- Facebook and Twitter. Although these sites are the biggest by far, small businesses can be easily intimidated by their sheer size. But smaller, niche social media sites can be used just as effectively to spread the word to your target consumers, and in turn drive traffic to your Facebook and Twitter pages. Here is an example of how this can happen:
You are a small web design business that is struggling with gaining followers on your Twitter and Facebook accounts. Rather than agonizing over why you are not reaching your target market effectively, try going a different route.
- You strategize to get a post to the front page of Dzone, a social media site for web development.
- This in turn brings a lot of views on Delicious, and subsequently you make it to the Delicious front page.
- Utilizing these two smaller social media sites, it is likely you have connected with people who have a shared interest with your company and have hopefully checked out your Facebook and Twitter pages.
- This not only increases the traffic to your Facebook and Twitter pages, but also strengthens the quality of these followers because you have created a shared value between you and your consumer.
Although this example is somewhat specific, it exemplifies one of the many strategies you can implement to reach more people via social media. Because your business is different unique in its own way, the social media strategy you use will be different and unique too. The bottom line is that social media is a tool that can be used to reach many potential customers in a simple and straightforward manner. Although this route may take more time and patience initially, it is likely to pay off in the long run.
