Social Media Tips--What's working for our members

At a recent BOB, we asked our Chamber members, "What's working for you with Social Media?"

TWITTER

"Keep tweets limited to 120 characters so others can retweet.  (RT)"

Jason T. Ryan, Vision Fuel Media

FACEBOOK

"Facebook is working!  I spend 10 minutes a day.  I respond to other's posts.  One in 20 of my posts is about my business, the rest is about my life."

Laura Jasurda, Rodan and Fields

LINKED IN

"I'm a fan.  Linked in helps you think strategically about your contacts.  You can use it to send a thank you for connecting--it leads to conversations."

Larry Ribits, Keaton Publications

CONSTANT CONTACT

"I use Constant Contact--it helps me stay in touch and in front of customers and clients, even in the busy times."

Tom Lowrie, Lowrie's Landscape

WEBSITE

"Having information about our natural burial area The Preserve, is bringing great interest to our website."

Russ Burns, All Saints Cemetery

CROSS LINK
Cross links from Twitter to Facebook to Linked in etc and to your website will help you come up higher in Google and other search engines."
Tom Kiihr, Signs Now Waterford


From the Chamber staff
There are a lot of online social media marketing outlets and tools out there
Invest a little time learning about what each has to offer
Go to where your target audience (and prospective audience) spends their time

TWITTER, the Chamber utilizes Social Oomph to pre-schedule tweets.
Look for content that's easy and interesting to tweet for these pre-scheduled tweets.
We use motivational and inspiration quotes
DTE Energy music theater concert announcements
Local blood drives and community events and activities.
Along with general Chamber information, trivia and tips.
We also use Tweetdeck to "listen".  We've set up columns to capture keywords and phrases of interest to our community.  When people tweet about Clarkston--we want to hear what they're saying.

CROSS LINK We've connected Twitter and Linked In to our Facebook page.  When we post once--it shows up on all 3 Social media outlets.

FACEBOOK--photos and weblinks grab the eye and engage the audience.
Asking questions--even simple ones like "What's your favorite flavor ice cream" can engage the readers.  Let them tell you what they like.

What else is out there?  
Have videos of your business, events, activities, products, testimonials and staff?  Upload them to YouTube and link to them from Facebook and Twitter
Have photos of your business, events, activities, products and staff?  Use Flickr to post them online.
Sign up for Pinterest and learn how to "pin" photos to your public bulletin boards.  You'll find out what people respond to when they Like or Repin your photos and videos.
If you've posted photos or videos on your website, Flickr or YouTube, you can PIN them to your Pinterest boards.  (Facebook photos and videos don't pin . . .yet)

If you have a retail business, you might want to investigate FOURSQUARE.  This social media, location based smart phone app encourages users to announce where they are by "checking in" with their phone.  Retailers and restaurants can capitalize on this by finding out who visits them on a regular basis.  You can also encourage users who are nearby to come on in and check your business out, by posting a special offer on FOURSQUARE.  When a user is in the area, their phone will tell them what special offers are nearby.

There's a lot of social media tools that are out there--free of charge--but needing an investment of your time to learn and keep current your online presence.

There are also a lot of tools out there for additional charges (many of these are nominal annual fees) to upgrade your accounts, give you access to more features or even monitor and manage your online presence for you.