We have been looking at various social media tools that all small business owners need to consider for their marketing. With more and more customers utilizing social media; small businesses that fail to integrate these tools will lose their customers to their competitors. We view the ability to track your return on marketing spend as well as lower your marketing cost as the two significant benefits that small business owners can get from the use of social media.
We showed two of the widely used social media tools – Facebook and Twitter in an earlier post. In the previous post we talked about two other tools – YouTube and Flickr. In this post we will discuss some of the emerging social media tools that may not be as popular as the ones we discussed; but are equally helpful.
Foursquare, Gowalla
What is it?
Both Foursquare and Gowalla are next generation social media tools that people can use to let their friends know where they are and share their pictures at these locations as well as encourage their friends to join them. Small businesses can use these tools for promotion by providing accurate information about their business as well as giving customers rewards for visiting their business. This will help drive traffic to your business and help improve sales.
How to use it?
Small business owners can sign up with Foursquare or Gowalla to promote their business with the people using those tools. You can provide rewards to customers for visiting your business as well as hand out discounts and coupons. You can also ensure that your business information is correct to avoid creating negative or wrong impression with your customers.
Chili’s Grill and Bar in Santa Clara one of the many businesses that is effectively utilizing Foursquare to generate buzz about their business and attract customers. They have 539 people following their location and generating 1,285 “check-ins” (equivalent to visits).
Who should use it?
Both Foursquare and Gowalla are ideally suited for any small business that has a physical location. By promoting their location and encouraging customers to “check-in” to their stores small businesses can attract repeat customers and spread the word to customers’ friends and families.
Yelp
What is it?
Yelp is a popular customer feedback website where anyone can setup a web page for your business where customers can share their opinion about it. The important thing to remember about Yelp is that they do not need your permission to setup and discuss your business. They may be talking about your business, good or bad, even without your knowledge. For this reason, it is imperative that you monitor what is being said about your business on Yelp and provide appropriate information and customer feedback yourself.
How to use it?
Small business owners should regularly monitor what is being said about their business on Yelp. For customers who are not happy and have negative review about your business should be offered appropriate explanation and incentive. Remember – people tend to spread the word about negative experience much more than they do about positive experiences.
John K. King Books is a bookstore in Detroit, Michigan that specializes in selling rare books. They have done a good job of providing detailed description about their business. It shows up on the number of positive reviews and overall rating they have received on Yelp website.
Who should use it?
Yelp is a must for all small business owners and particularly retail and restaurants that rely on customers who are swayed by online reviews.
We hope that this and the previous two posts on social media have provided you enough information to get started on your social media journey. As we have repeated several times, if you don’t start on this journey now you risk missing the train and left behind on the platform holding empty bag.
So without further delay get moving and let us know how the journey is going via comments.
