build brand awareness…engage your customer…join the conversation

…utilize the power of community…create buzz…

You have no doubt heard these terms and are aware of or have visited sites such as Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. But how do you, the small business owner, utilize Social Media to improve your bottom line?

I’d have to write a book or two to cover that one! In the meantime, here’s one tangible way you can use social media to connect with your customer and increase traffic to your business. “Push Pull Marketing, Twitter-Style”.

A “push” promotional strategy usually makes use of a company’s sales force and trade promotion activities to create consumer demand for a product.

A “pull” selling strategy is one that usually requires high spending on advertising and consumer promotion to build up consumer demand for a product.

The beauty of social media marketing is there is little or no monetary cost for most of your campaigns. Time is your primary investment. Take the time to learn how to utilize social media (such as reading this post); then take action. Yes, there is a learning curve, but once you start using Twitter, you realize how easy it is!

1. Sign up for an account at Twitter. Be sure to use the real name of your business and the town and state you are located in. You want people to find you easily in a search. Fill out your profile and post a picture. You must post a picture if you don’t want to look like a creeper.

2. Next, search your e-mail address book for people you know who are already using Twitter.  Then use one or more of these great third party tools to find potential customers to follow as well as list your business. TwitterLocal, Twellow,TwitterPacks, Just Tweet It, WeFollow, Who Should I Follow

3. Push, Twitter-style by scheduling a promotional tweet through EasyTweets. This is “push marketing. You are “pushing” your message out through Twitter, making people aware of a particular offer, such as “free wine with dinner tonight, just mention Twitter!”

4. Pull, Twitter-style by utilizing engagement tweets! This takes a little more time, but is just as important as push marketing.  Look for people who need help with an issue, or have had an issue with your company and you need to resolve it. Engagement is the soul of social media marketing (SMM). You help someone with their issue, you share your expertise, you reach out and empower someone and suddenly you are sought after. Helping people and showing genuine concern creates loyalty. How do you find people to help? Read your tweets each day, people you follow may tweet something that you can assist with. You can also use the search box on your Twitter homepage, type in a subject you believe you have expertise in – such as #webdesign and read the tweets on that subject.

Basic Twitter Help ~

WHEN sharing a link, use a service like TinyURL to shorten your link, allowing you more space to write your message.
WHEN addressing someone on Twitter or mentioning them in a tweet always use this format: @personsusername (@joesmith).
WHEN you read a tweet you like, share the love! Pass it on by retweeting: RT @joesmith (then copy and paste his post here).
WHEN posting on a subject you want people to know you mentioned, use a hashtag: #websitedesign or #livestrong. Then others who are interested in this subject will see your tweet grouped with all tweets regarding the same subject.

So, now you have one way to “join the conversation” right now. There are so many ways to use Twitter and numerous “shortcuts” and useful applications. A great place to find info on “all things Twitter” is mashable.com, supplying a plethera of social media information.

So, go create some buzz about your biz.  Your customers are waiting!