Social Media for Small Business: Making Sense of It All

It’s hard keeping up with all of the social media info that’s out there. If you’re a small business owner trying to get a handle on social media, here are some resources to help you make sense of it all.

social media for small business

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Nine Social Media Pointers: These are all good tips, with hints for each tip. While I agree with all the points, #5 is worth remembering, especially as you get started: “Success takes time and consistent effort.”

  • iContact recently released survey results about small business owners love/hate relationship with social media. Facebook and LinkedIn received the most likes, but a quarter of small business owners hate social media.
  • Using social media for business involves more than sending out tweets or posting your updates to Facebook. Should you friend your employees on Facebook? Can an employee take your followers to a competitor? This HR Survival Guide gives you a few things to think about.   You can then use these tips for developing your own social media policy.
  • Can Home Depot actually teach you anything about social media? Yes, they can. They have five social media lessons for business – and all are worth learning.
  • Of course, you’ll also want to learn from the mistakes of others. Social media has now been around long enough that you can avoid making these 10 mistakes and 5 mistakes.
  • Is it worthwhile to make time for social media even when you have a business to run? One lawyer thinks so – and he tells his story about how he’s using social media to gain new clients
  • Finally, this last link is the one that I think is most important for small business owners using social media: be selective about your networks and don’t try to do it all!