Tag Archives: facebook

5 Google+ Marketing Tips for Your Small Business

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Your small business only needs to maintain a presence on Facebook and Twitter, right? Wrong. Even though Google+ can seem like an afterthought in social media, ignore it and you’ll miss out on an enormous audience. There are five things you can do on Google+ to promote yourself in a new and exciting way and boost your brand’s awareness:

1.       Use the “About Page” to link your website

Take advantage of this opportunity to tell the audience about your company. This is the perfect place to add important keyword links for your site. Another cool feature is that Google+ allows you add bullet points, so you could simply list your products and services and have them link to pages on your website, which go into more detail.

2.       Plan events

Gmail accounts are ubiquitous, and Google+ has really neat optimized features for users. Their event feature, for example, is a great tool to use if your company would like to plan webinars, parties or other events. Regardless of whether or not they are Google+ users, their invitation will sync up with Google Calendar and help you track attendance. It’s also a great way to keep track of planning and logistics related to the event before, during and after!

3.       Create frequent optimized posts

By including keywords in your Google+ posts, you will ensure that you show up whenever your followers search for that keyword. This feature is called social search and it is especially effective for those with a large following. By frequently posting relevant content, you are increasing your chances of coming up in Google search results, which is one of the biggest benefits to maintaining a Google+ page.

4.       Be a Google Author

Google is constantly looking for new ways to authenticate content. By setting up Google Authorship, you are establishing yourself as a credible source for content. This means that you will be trusted by Google and will be able to reap all of the SEO benefits that come with that. By simply adding a photo of yourself and a miniature bio, you can drive tons of traffic to your page and significantly boost awareness.

5.       Talk to the right people

Google+ is all about talking to the right people, and it makes it pretty easy to do so. One way to do this is to join communities that are relevant to your company’s industry and interests and becoming a valuable part of the conversations. Once you have done this, you can begin to form relationships with people, and when they add you to their circles, you can add them to your company’s. Once they are in your circle, the things you post will show up for them.

Danielle Pacelli is the Marketing Coordinator at MycroBurst/Logo Design Guru. MycroBurst is based in Langhorne, Pa. and is an online marketplace for graphic design. MycroBurst provides custom designs through crowdsourcing. Follow Danielle and MycroBurst on Twitter @MycroBurst.

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How to Celebrate Holidays on Social Media

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The digital community expects you to stay on top of major holidays year-round. It looks pretty bad when a business overlooks a widely celebrated holiday and just goes along with the usual content and strategies. Holidays are a great way to create excitement, make noise, and even boost sales. Here are some ideas to get you started:

1.       Change your cover photo

Whether you are trying to spread some Valentine’s Day love or some Christmas cheer, a great way to start is by updating your cover photos to reflect that. Social media is becoming more visual by the day, so give the people what they want – pictures! Find or create an image that reflects your business and the holiday and make it your cover photo on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and any other platform.

2.       Tweet festively

Maybe you just want to say “Happy Halloween,” but there is an easy way to get attention for doing so. Get in on the trending topics on Twitter by using hash tags. When users search for the holiday or click on it, they might just come across your tweet and re-tweet it and follow you. Get creative and get noticed!

3.       Pin to win!

Pinterest is building quite the following and is an excellent tool for your business to use. A great way to promote your business during the holidays is to host a “Pin It to Win It!” sweepstakes and let your audience get their hands on a generous gift – promote it as a holiday gift. Simply have them follow you, re-pin a certain pin, and include a hash tag for a chance to win something your business offers or some other great prize. Users tend to keep their eyes open for these types of offers when holidays roll around.

4.       Offer an exclusive discount

Offering a coupon is an easy way to get a boost in sales. Offering a coupon code that is exclusively for your social media following will make them feel appreciated and help gain loyalty. Make the offer fan-gated in order to ensure that only your fans and followers are able to redeem the offer.

5.       Give helpful advice

The holidays can be stressful, but maybe you can help. Remind them of the goods or services your company provides or offer them useful tidbits. An easy way to do this is to write a holiday-themed blog post and promote it on all social media platforms to get the maximum amount of readership.

Don’t miss out on a golden opportunity for your company to shine by missing holidays and looking cold and unwelcoming. Open up your digital door and invite everyone in! 

Danielle Pacelli is the Marketing Coordinator at MycroBurst/Logo Design Guru. MycroBurst is based in Langhorne, Pa. and is an online marketplace for graphic design. MycroBurst provides custom designs through crowdsourcing. Follow MycroBurst on Twitter @MycroBurst.

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How Small Businesses Can Successfully Reach Their Customer Base

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The traditional sales funnel is dead, at least according to McKinsey & Company – a global management consulting firm. Replacing it is a circular sales cycle. It used to be that marketers could rely solely on direct mail and other marketing initiatives to “push” information to consumers. Since consumers’ information channels were limited, and research avenues were often hidden from the public, consumers relied on various marketing initiatives to make decisions about future purchases. Today, consumers can easily “pull” information to them online through social media websites and review-based sites like Yelp. This diminishes the power of focused marketing initiatives by companies. Consumers now rely on strong word-of-mouth over a corporation’s advertising campaign so if you want your small business to succeed, you’re going to have to change the way you reach your customer base.

Step 1: Use Branding and Information Marketing

It’s not that direct marketing doesn’t work; it’s that branding has just become more important than it used to be – especially now that people research brands on the Internet before making a purchase. If you have a brand, start doing more PR. If you don’t have a strong brand, create one. To do this, you can hire a PR firm or take to the social media networks to join the conversations your customers are already having about what you offer.  This gives you the opportunity to become a thought leader and in turn brand your business as a go-to company in your niche.

If you craft the right informational material, you can spread it all over the web and it will act as a point of reference for consumers. As long as your informational material is purely informational and relatable to the customer – not promotional – consumers will appreciate it and use it in their decision-making process.

Step 2: Use Offsite Analytics

Offsite analytical tools like Google trends, Compete, and Comscore will help you hunt down your potential customers and tell you what they’re really searching for. For example, if you have more document (i.e. PDF) searches that image searches being done for your company, it gives you a clue as to where people are finding you on the web.

Step 3: Use Onsite Analytics

Google Analytics is probably the best-known service available for analytics with good reason: it works. Analyze your site’s traffic patterns. What websites are they coming from? Do you get more referral traffic or do you get mostly Google organic traffic? Using onsite analytics will also tell you how long people stay on your site and even how long people stay on each page. You can even track visitor flow, which is how people move through your site. For example, if users come to your site and land on your “about us” page, but then leave immediately, there could be a problem with this page that you need to address to keep visitors flowing through your site.

If visitors soak up all of your content, see the sales page, and then click away from your site, then there’s something wrong with the sales page. It is crucial to your success that you remedy whatever is turning your customers away as quickly as possible. To do this, hire a designer to re-do the look of the page and make the call to action stronger, or work with a copywriter to make the text on the page more effective. Test the new looks and see which performs better.

Step 4: Use Social Media

Social media isn’t an end-point like most businesses think it is. Using social media means interacting with your prospect-base and existing customers. Listen to what they have to say. Often times, they will leave you feedback on your Facebook fan page, tweet you about something they like or dislike about your company, or write up a review on Google Places or Yelp when they have strong feelings about your company. It is equally as crucial that customers know where to find you. To do this, it is important that you link to your webpage from any e-mail correspondence, social media networks and listings. This will ensure that your customers are able to find you when they need you making their experience with your brand better overall.

Step 5: Make Your Site More User-Friendly

One of the best ways to facilitate the consumer decision journey is to optimize your website for usability. Don’t be afraid to link out to review sites with both good and bad reviews. Try not to delete every bad review you get – bad reviews are often rooted in real customer experience. Instead, if you are able, respond to the bad review and remedy any situation the review complained about right away. By showing this publically, customers will respect you more and appreciate you not trying to push them into a sale. Finally, making your navigation menu intuitive, and putting the most important content right on the homepage, will go a long way to improving your company’s image. When people get a good first impression about you, they tend to spread the word. Online, that can mean the difference between success and failure.

Written by Stacy Pruitt, a freelance writer and FX trader. Stacy has been researching currency trading strategies and trading robots. She enjoys writing about advanced trading strategies, tight spreads and forex indicators. Visit the link to learn more about Forex trading.

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5 DIY Services You Should Be Using

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Written by MycroBurst.com’s Marketing Coordinator, Jessica Kornfeind

Starting and maintaining a business, no matter the size, is a lot of work and can be quite expensive and finding the right tools and processes that are both cost and time effective can be challenging. Through careful research, I’ve found a few online tools along the way that are easy to use, quick and produce great results. Here are my five favorite online tools, and best of all, most are free!

LogoSnap.com

Your business is invisible if it isn’t represented by a great design. LogoSnap is the sister site of MycroBurst, and it offers DIY logo design for a fraction of the cost.  Aside from a logo design, you can create a business card, flyer and more. LogoSnap’s design software is easy and completely free. If you love your design, it’s only $29 to download.

SurveyCrest.com

One of the keys to running a successful business is having satisfied customers. One way I try and track this is to survey my clients.  I can identify their needs and how happy, or unhappy, they truly may be. I’ve used a lot of survey creation services, but none measure up to SurveyCrest.com. It’s completely free, and it even includes easy-to-understand analysis and reports.

WuFoo.com

To piggyback off the survey idea, sometimes I need a form that goes a step further. For that, I use Wufoo.com, which is a free online form builder. I use it for guest posts, as it’s any easy way for other bloggers to submit their ideas for our blog. There are free and paid registration accounts. I opted for the free version, but with a paid version you can eliminate ads, upload more file attachments, redirect after the form is filled out and more.

TweetDeck.com

TweetDeck is my lifesaver. Without TweetDeck, the ability to keep my social media platforms for MycroBurst in order would be near impossible. This platform allows me to maintain multiple accounts. I can tweet, retweet, post and respond directly from the desktop utility. I plan out all of our social media posts, and my favorite part is the ability to schedule a multitude of posts days in advance.

SocialDon.com

We’re all knee-deep in the social media world; the only way we can be sure our plans are working is to measure the data. SocialDon.com is a free service that not only measures your social media platforms but it compares yours to your competition. It’s free to use, and it was even featured on MSNBC in a segment regarding the best ways to measure Facebook data.

There are many others, including Visual.ly, CrowdBooster.com and all of the Google applications, but the above are my favorite. These DIY tools manage my day and help each one go by smoothly.

What tools are your favorites?  Tweet them to us @MycroBurst!

Jessica Kornfeind is the Marketing Coordinator at MycroBurst/Logo Design Guru.  MycroBurst is based in Langhorne, PA and is an online marketplace for graphic design.  MycroBurst provides custom designs through crowdsourcing.  Follow Jessica & MycroBurst on Twitter, @JesKorn & @MycroBurst.

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Guest Post: 10 Things Every Business Should Know About Social Media

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The internet is full of articles singing the praises of social media. “It’s the most important thing ever for businesses. If you have it, your company will become bigger than Google; if you don’t, you’ll disappear faster than Pets.com (remember them?) and have to move back in with your parents.”

Let’s set the record straight. Can social media help your business make a name for itself, gain new clients, and forge relationships? Yes. Should you jump in with both feet even if you don’t understand social media so your company can become an overnight success? No. That’s not going to happen.

Social media is a tool, and like any other tool, you need to understand how it works or you might embarrass your company. After all, you wouldn’t try to use a nail gun without knowing how to use it, right? I hope the answer is no, or at least that I’m nowhere near you the next time you find a nail gun.

Before you begin your business’s journey into the world of social media, here are 10 important things everyone should know.

1. Ditch the hard sell. If the only things you post on your Twitter feed, Facebook page, or blog are announcements about new sales, products, and services, no one will follow you.

2. Keep the content coming. Companies who are successful in social media put out a continuous stream of quality content that allows them to steadily grow their fanbase, gain trust, and strengthen the brand. Only updating your Facebook or Twitter accounts once a week just doesn’t cut it.

3. Don’t drown your audience. The flip side of that coin is that you shouldn’t be overzealous in your posts and updates. If people are getting several notifications from you every day, it might turn them off and lose you fans.

4. It won’t happen overnight. Social media doesn’t work like a TV or radio commercial where millions may hear or see it each time it airs (and where you’ll pay for that privilege). Growth will occur due to word-of-mouth and through you seeking out fans and followers who have similar interests related to what your company does. Give it time and keep at it.

5. Look beyond the big boys. Everyone needs to be on Facebook and Twitter, and starting a company blog is always a smart move, but there’s a lot more out there. It’s important that you look for social networks that seem to reflect your audience. Pinterest is great for companies that have amazing visual content. Seeking dog owners? Join Dogster. Whatever your niche is, there’s usually a social network close by.

6. It’s time consuming. Generally speaking, businesses that want to stay top of mind with their audience should post at least 2 to 3 times per week on their blog and each of their social networks. Already you’re looking at several hours a week of blogging, and that’s not counting monitoring and responding to comments. Businesses that really dive into social media often find it’s worth the money to dedicate someone to the task. Because of this…

7. Social media isn’t free. Perhaps the previous tip makes this obvious, but I think it’s worth saying directly. Even though it doesn’t cost money to join social networks or start a blog, at the very least you’re “paying” with your time.

8. Be human. With so many things competing for our attention, it can be difficult for your business to stand out. People tend to respond better when they feel a human connection, so don’t be afraid to have a personality and even share your personal story.

9. Use multimedia. The beauty of social media (and the internet in general) is that it can incorporate all other kinds of media. Rather than just posting text, share pictures, put together infographics, and even post videos on your blog and social media feeds.

10. Remember: you’re a unique snowflake. The key to using social media well is to hone in on what makes your business different and focus on that. If you don’t feel like you’re finding that sweet spot yourself, it might be worth the money to consult with a social media expert.

Josh Weiss-Roessler is a freelance writer and small business marketing consultant based in Los Angeles. He’s also a contributor to Resume Builder Online and a professional resume editor. You can learn more about his work at WeissRoessler.com.

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Today is MyCorp's Independence Day!

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Happy Friday has a whole new meaning today in the MyCorp office as we celebrate our independence day! For three years, we’ve been delivering excellence in customer service in helping entrepreneurs incorporate and form LLCs for their small businesses and we couldn’t be happier about it. “Customers are the reason for why we are the way we are!” Our fearless leader and CEO Deborah Sweeney told the MyCorp team during our pre-party pep talk.

Check out photos from the celebration on our Facebook page!

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MyCorp Survey Results Revealed!

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Last month, we conducted our first ever MyCorp 2012 Survey for Small Business with five quick questions on the state of small businesses in 2012 and beyond with questions that focused on consumer spending, business spending, predicted growth of the business in 2013, the social media outlet you’re looking to establish for your brand, and quite literally the state of your small business – where you’re putting your business out on the map and which states are the most popular to form a small business in!

We tallied up the votes on Constant Contact, conducted the random drawing for our lucky $50 Starbucks gift card winner (congrats to Elizabeth Sneed!), and the results are in from our voters!

1) What State is Your Business In?

Four states vied for the top spot in our polls with New York taking in fourth place and Florida and Texas snatching third and second place respectively. The number one spot was easily no contest with California snagging top honors, with a healthy number of C-Corporations formed throughout the state as our infographic from earlier this summer showed!

2) 2013 Spending Budget For Your Business

2013 met a very close tie in two sectors at 32% respectively, as businesses in 2013 plan on investing in updated electronics and tech equipment and marketing, including SEO, PR, and social media for their companies next year. Taking in third place at 27% was employees – looks like businesses in 2013 will be expanding their teams too!

3) What Consumers Are Spending Income on in 2013

The holidays may be coming, but that doesn’t mean that our survey shows you’ll be carrying the expense leftover well into the new year! A little over 50% have bill payments on the mind to pay off in 2013.

4) Social Media Outlets – Which Will You Create or Expand in 2013?

Over 50% of you will making several status updates by creating or expanding on your Facebook accounts. Hopping in at 45% is LinkedIn with Twitter rounding up the trio at 26%. (Psst – MyCorp has all three of these accounts in place that you can follow us at!)

5) Your Business in 2013: Expecting Growth?

Our survey says yes! Over 80% of you expect your business to swim on over to the shores of success next year – and we here at MyCorp couldn’t be happier to hear it!

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3 Inspirational Business Startups That Took Off Running

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The process of starting or operating a small business can be difficult and discouraging at times. Where we can gain the biggest amount of inspiration is by visiting and learning more about successful online businesses and the innovative founders behind them. Their stories, particularly for the founders of Dropbox, Instagram, and Tumblr, reveal that it’s still possible for anyone with enough skill and determination to build a savvy and successful company.

Dropbox

Dropbox is an online file sharing and storage service that allows users to store videos, images, documents and other files on its servers. People can share files by creating download links or giving access to other Dropbox members. The basic account is free; users pay to obtain extra storage space. To limit marketing costs, Dropbox gives members more space when they refer new users.

The concept emerged in 2007, when Drew Houston accidentally left his USB drive at home. The idea for an online file storage service occurred to him as he waited for a bus. To create the system, Houston joined forces with MIT student Arash Ferdowsi. Investors quickly supplied over $7 million dollars in funding, according to Inc.com. Dropbox now has over 25 million members and employs 50 people.

So how did he do it? By taking a risk as well as advice from a mentor, Paul Graham. Nobody can build a multi-million dollar company on their own, which is why Houston asked for help. He also took a giant risk by posting the idea to Hacker News in the hopes of it being well received in the tech world. As much as he was worried about copycats stealing his idea, he needed to prove to Y Combinator (a startup funding company for digital entrepreneurs) that the concept could succeed. His idea drew the attention of all the right people and Houston was granted the funds after one nerve-racking PowerPoint presentation to Y Combinator.

Instagram

Instagram is a photo sharing service that makes it easy for people and businesses with camera phones to distribute their pictures. To access the service, phone users download a free application. It allows them to modify, enhance and upload photos.

Kevin Systrom enjoyed creating computer games, taking pictures and experimenting with Photoshop. He saw photography as a powerful method of self-expression. After Systrom graduated from Stanford University, he worked at Google and NextStop. He was 28 years old when he started Instagram and during the first 90 days of its release, the app gained one million users. Systrom eventually sold Instagram to Facebook for $1 billion dollars, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Systrom didn’t make $400 million dollars in his 40% stake in Instagram simply by creating a product specifically for profit. He thought of his users first and what they would want. He took an idea and tailored it to give people the ability to share their creativity through photographs, which was always a passion of his. Originally, Systrom was offered a job at ‘The Facebook’ in 2006 but turned it down to finish his last year of school. By following his own priorities, this would lead him to his own version of success.

Tumblr

Tumblr is a major microblogging service that millions of people use, including celebrities like Beyonce and Lady Gaga. While traditional blogs often provide daily or weekly lengthy text-based content, microblogs entries are brief, in a paragraph or less, and typically based heavily on visuals. Tumblr users like to post interesting quotes, images, songs and videos and to generate revenue, the site sells blog themes, apps and featured directory listings.

Tumblr began in 2007 when founder David Karp was 19-years-old. Karp had tried other blogging systems, but he didn’t like the emphasis on text. He decided to create a multimedia blogging service. With the help of his excellent programming skills, Karp was able to build the system and rapidly expand it. Tumblr received $85 million from investors in a single month, according to Wired Magazine. The service now has about 36 million members and more traffic than Twitter.

By employing a well-worn technique in product manufacturing, Karp merely took something that he didn’t like and made it better. Blogging platforms aren’t a new thing by any means, but Karp discovered what modern bloggers were craving; more ways to express themselves. Once again, Karp – like Systom – focused on his users, concentrating their apps on each individual’s personal creativity.

These inspiring stories have many similarities. The founders believed in their ability to succeed. These individuals could have secured well-paying jobs at other companies, but they risked time and money to start their own businesses. Rather than relying on paid advertising, they created services that millions of people wanted to recommend. Although it isn’t feasible for everyone to immediately establish insanely popular websites right off the bat, business owners can benefit from these strategies and apply them to their startups. Combined with dedication and original ideas, such techniques are sure to yield success.

About the author

Carly Lance loves to blog about saving money and small business finances in hopes of helping others achieve financial bliss in their lives, as she has in her own. She is also the blog manager for Personal Bankruptcy Canada, a company of bankruptcy trustees dedicated to helping “good people with bad debt.

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Guest Post: Can Your Small Biz Use Crowdsourcing With the JOBS Act?

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Recently, the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act (JOBS Act) passed amid much hoopla about how this legislation would be the stimulus that jumpstarts the economy and enables people like you and me to invest in all of these startups without becoming accredited investors, as was previously required by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Now if you’re a small business owner, the floodgates will open, and you’ll be able to raise tons of money to accelerate your business, right? Probably not. While the SEC is still in its evaluation stage and the actual regulations have not been written, some things are already clear from the text of the JOBS Act bill itself. First, you will only be able to raise a total of $1 million in the course of 12 months, and individual investors will only be able to contribute the greater of $2,000 or 5% of net income if they make less than $100,000 per year or have a net worth of less than $100,000, and they will only be able to contribute the greater of 10% of the net income or net worth of the investor if the investor makes or is worth more than $100,000 and not to exceed $100,000 (see Section 302(a) of the text of the bill for details). So, raising $1,000,000 will require either at least 10 high income/net worth investors or at least 500 lower net worth investors, and probably many more than that.

Furthermore, the SEC will only allow you to raise money if you raise it through an approved platform. Given that sites like Kiva.org, Lendingclub.com, and Kickstarter.com are already available on the market for fundraising purposes, I would expect a similar platform to be created for the small business crowdfunding market.

Before you decide to raise money through crowdfunding, consider the following things first:

1) It’s better if you can give rewards rather than equity. While equity is cheap, if you achieve the success you envision through the raising of capital, then it will be expensive in the future. Let’s say that you give away 10% of your company in exchange for graphic design services or getting a website up and running. These exchanges won’t cost you any cash out of your pocket, but if you sell your company for $2 million later, that’s $200,000 which is not in your hands. You’ll lose out on the upside from the equity you gave away. It’s better to give credit and make these clients VIP customers or do something special which rewards their contribution but allows you to keep ownership.

2) Do you have a compelling story? I expect the requestors of funds to outnumber the sources of funds, at least in the beginning. For every 5 people with a dream, there will only be one person who can fund the dream. Therefore, your story has to REALLY stand out to get funding. One good way to create participation desire is to have original and interactive rewards. Take a look at these projects and see what sort of nifty rewards the founders offered their backers.

3) Don’t use this source of funds to pay off bills or to cash out. The money you’re raising has to go to something which is going to dramatically improve both top line and bottom line results in your business.

4) Do you have a track record of success? Are you making a profit yet and have clients and sales established? If you said yes, and you can make for the case that crowdfunding will only accelerate the process that you would have taken anyway, you probably have a chance of receiving funding.

5) Is there a perception of overnight success in what you’re offering? A lot of people will throw $10 or $20 at projects that they think will be the next Facebook which often causes them to disregard the fundamentals in the process. There has to be just as much sizzle as steak for your small business, as many of the investors will be, by and large, uninformed and uneducated ones who are hoping to be able to tell their friends that they invested in the next Google or Facebook despite their lack of knowledge about how to properly judge a business plan.

Overall, the criteria for successful fundraising through crowdfunding will be the same as what is used to raise money through venture capital and private equity markets now – do you have a sustainable model which projects a high level of growth without an unrealistic hockey stick profit projection? If so, then crowdfunding might be a very viable alternative because of the paucity of VCs and the high cost of going to them if you are successful later.

If you want a great guide for how to launch a successful crowdfunding project, check out Natalie Sisson’s great study on it. These projects succeeded because, as I mentioned above, they told compelling stories, were moving and impactful projects as a whole, and had founders that were able to reach and connect with a large audience.

About the Author: Jason Hull is a candidate for CFP Board’s certification and passed the CFP(R) exam in March 2012. He is a Series 65 securities license holder. He is the owner of Hull Financial Planning.

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How to Select the Right Social Media Service For Your Company

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There are a ton of social media sites and services out there. Nearly every major network has a handful of tiny competitors, who all hope that they can attract even a small percentage of the unique visitors checking out their behemoth counterparts. Understandably, this can create some confusion for new businesses. Which networks should you focus on? Do you need to have a profile on every single one? Or can you just hit the big guys and skip the little ones? Well the answers aren’t a simple yes or no, but there are some questions you can ask yourself to help figure out where you should focus your resources, and who you can ignore.

1. What is the size of the service?

This one is pretty darn important – after all, if no one is using a website then it isn’t worth your time. But there are some services that sort of fall in a grey area – an odd limbo-esque state wherein there is a sizable, core group of users but not much interaction outside of them. Google+, for example, is one of those sites. You should always make a profile for Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Those are the major players in the social media world, and are where most of your customers are going to be. Then start to look at the smaller guys. Google+ enjoys a very large core group of tech aficionados so if you’re a tech company, you should be on Google+. But if you don’t see much of your target audience on the smaller sites, then feel free to ignore them. You should cast as wide a net as possible when it comes to social media, but sometimes it’s just impossible for new businesses to devote that much time and effort when first starting out.

2. Why am I using this site?

A pretty basic question. Why are you devoting your time and energy to this particular social media site? Is it to get people to read the articles you put on other outlets? If so, you should consider looking into services like StumbleUpon and, as long as your articles weren’t only written to sell something, Reddit. StumbleUpon is a little bit more relaxed and simply guides traffic to any articles filed under a particular broad heading, like business or sales. Reddit is trickier, and requires that the user-base positively reacts to your submission. If they don’t, no one will read anything you submit.

But maybe you aren’t writing anything for anybody, you just want a place that customers can find and follow. In that case, stick with Facebook and Twitter. Keep in mind, though, that you have to give your customers a reason to follow you. Typically that reason is pretty basic and doesn’t change from the time-tested formula of ‘If I follow them, they will give me discounts’ but it’s up to you to figure out if you want to expand your profiles beyond being another source of coupons.

3. Can I honestly maintain this outlet?

This question is key. There is nothing more damning to a potential customer than an outlet that hasn’t been updated in three months. Going off of your Twitter account alone, they may even wonder if you’re still in business! You need to be able to dedicate at least an hour a day to updating all of your social media outlets – especially for services like Twitter that expect constant updates. Anything less and you’ll be doing more harm than good. And remember that your updates shouldn’t just be a constant stream of updates and tweets that essentially say ‘Buy stuff from me because I’m the best!’ Like we said above, you have to give your followers a reason to follow you. Post news about your industry, updates from the office, pictures of cats (if you think that they are appropriate). And never forget to talk with your followers – social media is about opening channels of communication, giving your customers a bit more of that all-too important human element.

Starting and maintaining a presence with social media sites is more complicated than people think. It requires an enormous amount of creativity to keep from stagnating, and it is very easy to put off updating your feeds to focus on things you consider more important. If you don’t think you have the time to update eight different sites every couple of hours, that’s fine – you just need to remember to pick the ones that both fit your needs, and that you enjoy using. Social media shouldn’t be a chore, so don’t get in over your head and just start out with whatever you think you can handle. You can always sign up for more accounts later!

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