Brainlitter » My Approach to Social Networking – One Small IT Business spreading out online and spending very little doing it

My Approach to Social Networking – One Small IT Business spreading out online and spending very little doing it

A customer asked me to summarize my approach to helping people find my business (www.itgroove.net) online.

 

I used to do a fair amount of print advertising to build ‘brand’. But it was extremely expensive and had a short shelf life (before it hit the recycle bin). So, over the years, I’ve been bulking up on Social Network/Media outlets like Facebook, Linked In … and most importantly, for me, my blog (http://www.brainlitter.com). In fact, my Blog seems to generate more interest in our company than our corporate website does … and as my passion grew for blogging, it seems Microsoft learned to appreciate what I had to say, and awarded me with the MVP in SharePoint (my true love, besides Wendy and the kids, of course).

 

Anyways … babbling over. Here’s a short list of suggestions I had for the client. It is by no means comprehensive, but it is original (not just a cut and paste from other blogs out there) and may offer a short perspective on how one small IT business is reaching out to a larger (the Internet!) audience and using this as our sole marketing vehicle (ok, I lied, we have a very small yellow pages listing which next year we’ll be shrinking again and we have our name splashed on a giant sign outside of the hockey arena we work in – www.sofmc.com – but that is free too – only costs me my soul… :-).

 

Social Networking – Sean Style

 

Some Great Reference Material

 

First Steps…

 

 

Before you start, make sure you have the ‘basics’:

 

  • A short description of who you are and/or what your business does. I have 3 different paragraphs I keep on hand (so I don’t have to dream it up, each time – thus they are free of typos and ready to use when I am). I’ve included what I have (in SharePoint of course) in the screenshot below, in a list, so I can simply cut and paste from there, into whatever medium I am using (Face book, Linked In, or some new service that comes along – the crux being that I’m *consistent*)
    • Short description – 140 characters or less
    • Medium description – 1 paragraph
    • Long description – whatever describes the whole business best
  • A place to store all of the Social Networking Media login info – if you are going to create accounts that you visit seldom (or often), have a place to put this info, as they all may have different rules for password lengths, etc. and you won’t remember 6 days from now, much less 6 months from now…
  • Have your logo handy, in various sizes, ready to upload – most sites will allow you to attach your logo (brand!) and you should do it, everywhere you can – so have it on hand, in a quality representation, raring to go, in various web friendly sizes (I keep a thumbnail, small, medium and large logo, ready to roll)

 

 

Avenues…

 

One size doesn’t fit all, but this is what I do, and for now, and it is enough for me.

 

Blogging

 

  • Share opinions and value, but don’t turn people off
  • Set yourself up (and your content) as the local expert on your topic (business) – people will be drawn to you (plus all it costs you is time, to push out your brand)
  • If you don’t yet have a blog, consider Blogger.com as it is owned by Google (thus I suspect has a higher weight for being indexed). But Microsoft has some great/integrated social features too – never hurts to do both
  • Make sure your company URL and your content includes ways for you to be found, if even just a footer
  • Blog as often as you can. Sometimes it will be lengthy, sometimes it will be short and sweet. Whatever it is, keep doing it
  • Link your blog to your website and vice versa
  • Provide expert comments on other blogs of similar content, and be sure to provide a link/URL back to your blog, so others can find you

     

Other Social Networking Outlets

 

There are so many – below are the few I care about, so far. The more you are out there, the more you will be found. But one thing is clear, create an account everywhere, so nobody else grabs your *alias*.  Because someone else could choose to create a CompanyX account at Face Book and then make you look bad – get it before someone else does, even if you just sit on it.

 

  • Face Book – Create a ‘group’ for your business and invite others to join it. Try and add content now and then. Consider Face Book Ads as well – I pay $30 a week, to reach 43,000 people in a demographic I dictate (certain age group, 25 miles from my postal code, etc.)
  • Twitter – Create an alias. I’m not big on Twitter and I hope it is a passing fad, but get your Twitter ID before someone else does
  • Linked In – Business to Business Social Networking – I like this better than most other Business to Business social tools

 

Others include Plaxo, MySpace, etc.  But for me, and my time, business wise, I don’t find much value in those (or more accurately, I haven’t spent much time with them, nor do I feel I’m missing out).

 

Hope this helps someone…