Social Media Marketing for Small Business 2ShopKeep Masters Series

By now you’ve probably heard the news, “Small Business is going social in 2014!” In fact you might already be one of the 9 in 10 small businessesusing social media as a method to solve your business challenges1. With so many small businesses participating in social media, it’s clear that social media is no longer just a buzzword. Social media is quickly becoming one of the most important methods for attracting new customers and managing your small business’ reputation.

With the excitement to dive right in and “get social,” there is also the quick realization that social media isn’t an instant gratification play. Unlike banner ads and other online marketing tactics that provide a more instant return on investment, social media requires patience and dedicated time that, let’s face it, as a small business owner, you can’t always afford to spare.

Even though small business owners are beginning to realize social media’s potential, 27% of small business owners consider themselves to be novices and 26% haven’t even considered how social media can help their business2. These alarming statistics indicate that many small businesses still aren’t tapping into the full potential of social media.

Small businesses play a vital role in our economy and in our communities.Founded by a merchant for merchants, ShopKeep is committed to doing whatever we can to support the growth and success of small businesses. We don’t want you to just “do social”; we want your small business to become a social media success story. We may not be able to provide you with more hours in the day, or your very own social media guru, but we can provide you with a few best practices that will help you increase your sales and brand sentiment over time.

Introduction

Don’t be afraid to dive into the“social” swimming pool!

1 According to a study conducted by LinkedIn in partnership with TNS in November 2013, 9 in 10 Small Businesses use or plan to use social media in 2014.

2 According to the Staples 2013 Small Business and Social Media Study, 27% of small business owners considered themselves to be novices and 26% haven’t considered how social media can help their business.

Social Media Marketing for Small Business 3ShopKeep Masters Series

Contents

Introduction 2

Part I: Just Because You Built It Doesn’t Mean They’ll Come — 3 Small Business Mistakes and How to Avoid Them1. Caught Without a Plan 52. Thinking That Social Media is All About Your Business 63. Focusing on Vanity Metrics — Why “Likes” Don’t Equal Dollar Signs 7

Part II: 5 Best Practices for Small Business Success in Social Media1. Choose the Right Platform 82. Add Value 103. Budget Your Time 104. Monitor to Improve 11 5. Be Consistent 11

Part III: Small Business Success Stories 12

Conclusion 13

About the Author:Yamarie Grullon is an experienced communications professional responsible for developing and implementing social media strategy at ShopKeep. With a history of successfully fostering engaged customer communities for B2B and B2C companies, Yamarie focuses on providing valuable content to her followers and delivering concrete results to the companies she represents. She is particularly proud of her most recent accomplishment, expanding the U.S. social media presence of french jeweler, Mauboussin.

Social Media Marketing for Small Business 4ShopKeep Masters Series

Just Because You Built It Doesn’t Mean They’ll Come3 Small Business Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that 9 out 10 small businesses are using, or plan on using, social media as a marketing tool in 2014.

It takes little to no time and zero financial investment to set up most social media accounts, and returns can be huge, from quickly connecting with customers to increasing the sales of your products. Because of this, small business owners regularly dive right into social media without giving it any serious thought. However, the excitement of capitalizing on some of the best “free marketing tools” available, is often followed by the harsh realization that just because you built it doesn’t mean they will come. In order to be successful in social media marketing, like any other marketing initiative it requires thoughtful

Social Media Marketing for Small Business 5ShopKeep Masters Series

planning, time and commitment. Here are 3 common small business mistakes and how to avoid them.

Mistake No.1: Caught Without a Plan

Time is money and as a small business owner you can’t afford to take on any additional responsibilities that are going to take away valuable time from your day-to-day priorities. Without proper planning you’ll end up investing countless hours tweeting, pinning and posting with little response from your audience and even less of a return on investment.

Consider the following before investing time in social media:

1. What are you hoping to achieve?Now you’re probably thinking to yourself “sell, sell, sell.” You want people to want your products and services and even more importantly you want them to purchase now! While increasing sales should certainly be on the list of what you hope to accomplish with social media, it is important to remember that your audience needs a compelling reason to follow and engage with you. (We’ll cover more on this in Part II — 5 Best Practices for Small Business Success in Social Media)

Some other goals you may want to consider are:• Building brand awareness• Enhancing customer support• Collecting data to help improve your business• Creating brand advocates • Educating current and potential customers

2. How much time and resources are you wiling to devote? As a small business owner chances are you are no stranger to feeling like there aren’t enough hours in the day or staff on call to help you

tackle your existing tasks. Even if you decide to start small and only be active on one social media platform, “going social” will require you to dedicate a few hours or more a day to engage with social communities and create valuable content. Avoid spreading yourself too thin by determining how much of your time and resources you are willing to dedicate in advance. As a good rule of thumb, it’s always best to start with one social media platform, perfect your strategy and expand your presence across multiple platforms later.

3. Who are you trying to reach?Understanding who you’re trying to reach is extremely important in social media. Are you trying to talk to prospects, customers, or both? Is your target male or female? What age group do they fall in? Knowing this is not only going to help you understand how to add value to your social communities, it will also help you decide which social media networks you should target first. (Hint: More on this in Part II — 5 Best Practices for Small Business Success in Social Media)

Like any other successful marketing plan, social media marketing requires some planning and research. Once you identify the above, it will be easier to focus on a strategy that will get you the results you want.

Social Media Marketing for Small Business 6ShopKeep Masters Series

Mistake No.2: Thinking That Social Media is All About Your Business

There is no harm in using social media platforms to showcase promotions or new products. In fact, I highly recommend it. However, if you’re only on social media to “sell yourself and your products,” not only will you find it difficult to build a social audience, your existing audience will quickly unfollow you. The key to “selling” in social media is not to sell at all.

Focus on building a trusting relationship with your audience first and the sales will follow. So how do you do this? Believe it or not, it’s easier than you think. A lot of it requires some basic customer service skills:

1. Talk to them not at them. The same rules of offline conversation apply to online conversation. You know that annoying customer who comes into your business and asks you how your day is going only so that they can rant on and on about their own? Don’t be that guy! Instead, exchange thoughts, opinions and feelings with your audience. Furthermore, if someone asks you a question or makes a comment, make sure to respond.

Not responding to a customer on social media is just as bad as ignoring a customer who walks into your business. A 2013 study from social software provider, Lithium found that brands that respond to tweets in a timely manner garner more favorable reactions from customers. According to research, 47% of respondents were more likely to recommend the business and 34% were more likely to buy products.

Go beyond sharing content and self-promoting. Listen to what your

audience has to say and respond to their feedback in a timely manner.

2. Be TransparentAs a small business owner it’s likely that you’ve had your share of run-ins with the occasional disgruntled customer. This will not change with social media. In fact it might get a little worse. According to a 2013 survey conducted by Dimensional Research 45% of customers share bad experiences on social media.

Consider how impactful a negative or positive review can be on your small business when 88% of customers say they are influenced by online reviews when making buying decisions3.

Embrace online feedback, good or bad, as an opportunity to showcase your superior customer service skills and positive results will follow. Unless your audience is posting profane or inappropriate content on your page, you should never delete social feedback. Doing so is a reflection of poor customer service and gives the appearance that you have something to hide. Be honest, sincere and deal with issues head-on by fully addressing your audience and their concerns. Which leads me to…

3. Be PoliteWhether it’s online or offline, you will come across the occasional customer that just can’t be pleased. Regardless of how frustrating situations can get online, always maintain your composure and treat your audience with respect. Don’t underestimate your followers. Your audience can easily recognize the difference between poor customer service and a poorly behaved customer. Just as you would in your physical establishment, do your best to handle the situation with poise — doing so, will help increase brand loyalty. As highlighted earlier, social media is more of a long-term play, focus on your customers’ needs and the boost in sales will follow.

3 Data is from a 2013 survey conducted by Dimensional Research on 1046 individuals who had experiences with customer services of a mid-sized company.

Social Media Marketing for Small Business 7ShopKeep Masters Series

Mistake No. 3: Focusing on Vanity Metrics - Why “Likes” Don’t Equal Dollar Signs

Many small businesses put a great deal of importance on vanity metrics like getting 1,000 Facebook likes or 2,000 Twitter followers. If I told you I could get 1,000 people to come to your store tomorrow would you be interested? What if I then told you that of those 1,000 people, not a single one would have any interest in your merchandise? You’d probably reconsider. You should think of social media in the same way. You want to attract a quality audience and focus less on the quantity. Where is the value in having 1,000 followers that aren’t engaging in actions that will help you improve your business, brand perception or sales?

Go beyond “Likes” and instead focus on metrics that will allow you to take actionable next steps towards meeting your goal. Again, social media is about building relationships, so instead focus on audience engagement (total number of post likes, comments, shares) or conversions (how many people became customers after seeing you on a social advertisement or interacting with you on a social media platform).

One way to track the conversion of social followers to new customers is by running a social media promotion that can only be redeemed by first-time customers. Depending on your business type this can be a little tricky but by sharing a redemption code that is unique to your social media efforts or simply asking customers to quickly fill out a survey when completing their purchase, you can track how many in-store sales resulted from your social efforts.

Top Tip

Vanity metrics are fun to watch but at the end of the day you want to make sure the amount of time you’re dedicating to social media is contributing to the growth of your business. Make sure that whatever you do is tied to a measureable goal so that you can quantify results.

Social Media Marketing for Small Business 8ShopKeep Masters Series

5 Best Practices for Small BusinessSuccess in Social Media

More than half of small businesses have increased time and spend on social media compared to 20124. Yet, most social marketers

aren’t even sure if their efforts are effective5. So how can small business owners get on the path towards social media success and sales? By thinking of social media as an extension of what’s happening in their physical locations. As we touched upon earlier, social media platforms should be looked at as another avenue for you to connect and build relationships with customers — not an instant revenue tool. With that said, here are 5 Best Practices for Small Business Success In Social Media:

1. Choose The Right PlatformAs mentioned earlier some of the most common mistakes made by small businesses are that they don’t consider who their audience is or what platforms will be best for engaging with them. That’s why we’ve decided to take some of the busy work out of your research process and provide you with an overview of some of the key social media platforms as they pertain to your small business.

PinterestWhile 21% of all online adults use Pinterest, the numbers are skewed towards women (33% of online women vs. only 8% of online men). Pinterest users also skew slightly towards the affluent side.According to full service agency Modea, 28% of users have a household income of $100k+.

With that said, Pinterest is a visual content sharing service (photos, videos and other images) that is used by women in an aspirational way6. Small businesses can best leverage this platform by capitalizing on visual imagery as a selling point.

Some small business types that Pinterest can work really well for include: bridal services, food trucks, restaurants, boutiques, travel businesses and interior decorators.

4 According to f igures based on a study conducted by LinkedIn in partnership with TNS in November 2013, more than half of SMBs have increased spend on social media compared to the prior year; higher than that of any other marketing channel, including email marketing and events.

5 According to the 2013 Social Media Marketing Industry Report, most marketers aren’t sure their Facebook marketing is ef fective: Only 37% of marketers (slightly more than one in three) think that their Facebook ef forts are ef fective.

6 According to Social Habit ’s Fall 2012 research series women are using Pinterest in a far more aspirational and motivational way than are men, who are more likely to use Pinterest as a visual bookmarking tool.

Social Media Marketing for Small Business 9ShopKeep Masters Series

FacebookDespite the recent growth in social services such as Pinterest and Instagram, Facebook remains the dominant player in the social media space with 71% of online adults now on Facebook. In terms of gender split, 66% of online men use Facebook vs. 76% of online women.

As indicated in Pew’s 2013 Internet Research, Facebook is a platform suitable for almost any type of business, reaching across a variety of age groups and demographics. It is clear from looking at the data that Facebook has become an integral part of people’s lives.

However, the latest changes to Facebook’s advertising model could make it difficult for small businesses to break through the clutter without a significant investment in content, time and social advertising dollars.

The bottom line? Your audience is here, therefore it is certainly a platform that you want to be on, at least for now. However, be prepared to set aside an advertising budget to help maximize the reach of your most important and engaging content.

TwitterThe current ratio of male and female adults on Twitter is fairly even.However, adoption levels amongst younger adults (18-49) and African-Americans skews particularly higher.

Unlike Facebook and other social media platforms, where people can choose what to look at on your site, or respond later, Twitter is more “real-time.”

This is an important differentiator that your small business should understand before using this platform.

If you have breaking news or updates, need to announce a recall or have a time-sensitive promotion, Twitter is the best way to reach out to your audience.

Twitter can be a great tool for your small business, but it is important to note that frequency and the ability to reply to customers in a timely manner is key, even more so than on other platforms. If you have limited time and resources, this may not be the right platform for you to start with. However, you should keep in mind that it is a great tool for “real-time” interactions, which means that it can also be used for driving foot traffic to your business when things are slow.

Social Media Marketing for Small Business 10ShopKeep Masters Series

When it comes to choosing the right social media platform for your small business, consider the amount of time and resources you have available as well as which platform or variety of platforms will allow you to engage with your ideal audience. Again, don’t be afraid to smart small and expand your strategy later. It’s best to invest your limited time and resources into perfecting your presence on one platform than to have a dozen social media presences with a sub-par level of engagement and presentation.

2. Add ValueThere is one very simple rule in social media that you should always follow — add value!

Believe it or not as a small business you have a slight upper hand when it comes to this. Because you’re a small business owner, you know your customers; I mean you really know your customers. Chances are you deal with them personally, perhaps even on a day-to-day basis. Use the conversations and interactions you have with your customers offline as insight into how you can improve your presence online.

When posting on social media, practice what I like to call the 80-20 rule: Make sure that 80% of the content you distribute is intended to benefit your customers and only 20% is about your business. What are your customers interested in? What problems do they want you to solve? What needs do they want you to satisfy? The answers to these ques-tions will dictate the direction you should take with your content strate-gy. (Tip: For more on content strategy read Content Marketing for Small Business.)

Whatever you do, focus on adding value to your online communities by being useful and don’t forget the “social” aspect of social media. Don’t be afraid to get a little up close and personal — highlight customer

experiences, share employee pictures, and give customers a behind-the-scenes look into your business and its culture. Your audience is on social media to engage “socially” with other people, so go ahead, show off your human side!

3. Budget Your TimeAs mentioned earlier, social media takes time and requires a significant amount of commitment. In order to make social media work for you, not only do you need to add value to your communities with great content, you also need to make sure that you are sharing that content consistently. Using technology that allows you to schedule social media posts is one of the most effective ways to budget your time, allowing you to focus on other aspects of your business.

There is just one simple rule to remember when using automation tools, as with most things, everything in moderation. Use social media to plan posts in advance but make sure to make time to participate in real-time engagement. This may require a little pre-planning on a monthly or weekly basis, but it will keep you from becoming overwhelmed by the need to be constantly connected to your audience.

From free tools like Facebook’s scheduler to paid social media scheduling and management platforms like HootSuite and SproutSocial, there are a variety of different tools that can help give you back some time by allowing you to schedule the bulk of your content. Finding the one that works best for you will depend on what social channels you plan on using and whether or not you are also looking for a tool that allows you to monitor your engagement and track social success. Which leads me to the following ‘Best Practice’…

Social Media Marketing for Small Business 11ShopKeep Masters Series

4. Monitor To ImproveThe best way to understand how to improve your strategy is to monitor online conversations. Do this by using tools that allow you to track the social chatter surrounding your brand, while also capturing social metrics such as total number of likes, comments and shares.

As a small business you probably don’t have a social media budget to work with or you are wary of spending money to help you track the success of your “free” social media assets. Free tools like Google Alerts allow you to track any mentions of your business online by having them delivered directly to your mailbox. Other tools like Social Mention or Twitter Search allow you to track conversations surrounding your brand or industry with a keyword search.

However it is important to note that as you grow and evolve, you may want to invest in tools that will provide you with the data you need to optimize your strategy and be successful. Determining the tool that is right for you will depend on what you are trying to accomplish.

Some things to consider include:• How many people will be monitoring and managing your accounts?• Do you only want to monitor social media mentions, or would you

also like to manage a variety of social media profiles and track competitive data?

• Does the platform support the social networks that you are most active on or plan on being active on?

• Do you want to analyze positive and negative feedback about your business?

• Do you need to export and archive data for analysis?

While many social media channels have built-in tools that help you monitor, track and evaluate some metrics for social success, oftentimes

you will need to use a variety of tools to get the information you need. It’s worth investing in a tool that will take a lot of the busy work out of measuring and monitoring. However if investing in a tool isn’t an option for you at this time, focus on what important metrics you can capture with an existing free tool and invest in a more sophisticated monitoring platform later.

5. Be ConsistentConsistency between your online and offline presence is one of the most important yet overlooked aspects of social media marketing. Consistency in branding on social media is very important because it allows people to verify the authenticity of your products, services and communications. Inconsistency in branding, messaging, and tone of voice can cause confusion amongst your online audience, which leads to distrust and disinterest amongst prospects and current customers.

The reality is that most people don’t make buying decisions instantly. This is especially true for small businesses selling specialty services or products that require a larger investment. Your goal as a small business should always be to make brand recall easier for your customers. Now, this doesn’t mean that all of your social communications need to look exactly alike, but it does mean that your key messages, visual branding and how often you post should be consistent. Your social audience has the potential of becoming your loyal brand ambassadors. Be clear about the messages you want your audience to portray about your brand and relate these messages to them often.

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Small Business Success Stories

T hese businesses might be small but they sure know how to make a big impact in the social space. If you’re looking for inspiration,

these savvy and social small businesses are a good place to start.

Mast Brothers (Facebook)The Mast Brothers don’t just make chocolate, they eat, breathe and live chocolate — and it shows. Their passion and personal style is evident throughout the content that they share on their Facebook Page.Not only do these guys share content that is visually compelling and valuable to their audience, their pithy posts do an awesome job of reinforcing their positioning as a quirky, fun and hip brand.

Mr. Rooter Plumbing LLC (Pinterest)Some of the best Pinterest boards share a good mix of photographs and do an even better job of providing value by being inspirational and resourceful. Mr. Rooter’s underlying theme is “Helping Customers

Fix Problems Easily,” so while their Homemade Remedies and similar boards may seem out of place at first, the message is clear, “Mr. Rooter solves your problems, easily.” These guys do a great job of keeping their company top-of-mind, with helpful DIY Pinterest boards.

Blue Bottle Coffee (Twitter)You might recognize these guys from Mashable’s list of America’s Most Social Small Businesses. Not only have they managed to attract over 23,000 followers, they do a fantastic job of keeping them engaged. Blue Bottle Coffee strikes up conversations with their audience on a daily basis, does a nice job of highlighting their company culture and offers exclusive promotions to their followers, giving them a reason to keep coming back. This page is a great example of how showing off your human side and keeping an open dialogue builds transparency, trust and credibility.

Social Media Marketing for Small Business 13ShopKeep Masters Series

Conclusion

Now that you’re aware of some of the biggest small business mistakes and how to avoid them, you’re ready to play in the big leagues. Hopefully you’ve gained some insight on how to use social media to grow your small business and balance the commitments of “going social” with your existing day-to-day obligations. Remember, it’s okay to start small, the important thing is to just get started. There’s always room to grow and aim bigger — building great relationships takes time. Social media is a long-term play. Focus on nurturing your social communities with valuable content and conversations they can relate to. If you do that, the sales will follow.