How to create social media interaction for small business websites

Takeaway:  Shares some simple tips for social media sharing that will help you build relationships with customers, drive more traffic, and work on a small budget.

There are many ways to connect your website to social media networks, and it would be impracticable to cover them all in this article. So I have created this quick list of tips geared toward the small business website. In most cases small businesses have very limited resources for a chockablock marketing department or a generous advertising budget. These simple tips will help generate more traffic to your website and business and don’t require a big budget.

This article presupposes that you have already set up your business accounts with the various social media networks of your choice, such as Facebook, Twitter, StumbleUpon, Instagram, Pinterest, just to name a few.

Quick tips for social media success

1. Use images - People respond to images more than any other media type, so be sure to post at least one image per business day on your social media network accounts. Images can include business events, products, services, trade shows, conferences, business milestones, and any other activities related to your business.
2. Engage your customers - Be sure to get your customers engaged in your responsive social media. Reply, respond, re-tweet, and be sure to answer any questions or critiques that customers may post on your social media sites.
3. Build relationships - Don’t just hawk your products and services every day on the social media sites and don’t underestimate your customers and followers. Be sure to make interaction with your followers and customers the daily goal, and don’t create an expectation of getting sales directly from that interaction. You want to educate your following, provide information about your business, or maybe provide a Do- It Yourself type of tip that relates to your service or product — something that gives your customers a sense that you are providing a personal experience.
4. Be creative and interesting - Sometimes you have to give the followers what they want or are interested in, and not just what you want them to get. This means being creative and funny on occasion. Think of a daily question or daily tip to post; make it funny or spirited. The more positive responses you have, the more exposure you will get.
5. Consistency - Be sure that all of your social media handles and profiles are the same. You want to maintain a consistent naming convention and interaction level among all your social media accounts and profiles. Having your Facebook account with a slightly different name than your Twitter account might confuse some followers, and could result in losing some customers or valuable interactions.
6. Timing - Start spending about thirty minutes to an hour a day on social media, and make a few posts typically in the morning, which is a good time to reach your followers; the hours between 8 am and 10 am are a good time frame.

This is a short list of tips that will get you on your way to starting a good social media interaction between your small business and your client customer following.