Social Media is still an area that have so many businesses offline. Why don’t small businesses and creative entrepreneurs realize the unbelievable potential they are missing out on?
In my neighborhood of Jersey City Heights and close by Hoboken, New Jersey, there are many businesses that are struggling and many that have closed up and left. Whenever I walk down Central Avenue in the Heights and Washington Street down in Hoboken, there are empty stores. More and more are closing due to this stalled economy and I truly believe it’s because they are all focused on the foot traffic of the surrounding areas… and of course there’s the rent increases and costs of operating their businesses.
Businesses need to wake up and realize there is a whole world out there, waiting and wanting what they have to offer, if they just knew about it. The combination of newer social media and community sites as well as changing technology scare many away. Some have told me, “I don’t see the point” or “I can’t write English very well, what if they start writing back?” or “I don’t want my personal information out there” or “I wouldn’t know what to say or show.”
Social Media and updating your website often is the key to your business being successful. I know because I have run my business for almost 2 decades and my clients are all over the world. I do not depend on local businesses to give me assignments, although I’d welcome them. I reach out to the “WWW.” Remember this term? World Wide Web!
Let’s begin with the basics.
The public likes entertainment, and they also like to read and be educated. They like music, videos, gorgeous imagery and thoughtful commentary. That means you can draw interested people in a lot of different ways using many different mediums and across many different social websites.
But there is always a goal.
Each business has different goals but they all have a few things in common. They want fans, to be recommended, and new customers. How is this going to happen in a dragging economy if they’re only hoping someone is physically going to come into their store. They post 30% off, 50% off and try so hard just to make sales.
Your business is unique and you need to tell the world about what you are doing. Once you post imagery, stories, or video and you do that consistently, your engagement widens, your visibility reaches out across the web to new eyes, and fans start to pass your business around and before you know it, you have increased sales.
Here is one example of what I have done to help a local small business.
This is based on reviewing the company’s Google Analytic stats. Before we began his website traffic was about 235 visitors for the past 30 days and social media engagement 0%. Once we attacked social media and updated things on the company website, 3 weeks later, the social engagement is 25%, and website traffic is now at 2,100 for the past month. Many new visitors are coming from social media, and they are staying on site longer, looking around, and more sales are coming in. The more consistently we do this, the engagement and visitors will continue to go up.
So, you’re now wondering if you have the right business and how social media can help you. Just ask me… I can spin branding and marketing ideas easily and I’m happy to offer advice that will attract more potential customers for your business. Whether you are a florist, small book publisher, interior designer or own a bicycle shop, social media can bring you increased visibility which is really a GOOD thing.
So join in and remember to be “social!”
