The Small Business Social Media Cheat Sheet

THE SMALL BUSINESS t. SOCIAL MEDIA CHEAT SHEET With one in three small businesses using social media, its no longer enough to just have a websites, small businesses must have a social media presence, too. Don't know where to start? This cheat sheet will help you navigate the major social media sites on the web. SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM OVERVIEW f You Tube t. digg TWITTER FACEBOOK YOUTUBE GOOGLE+ TUMBLR DIGG A microblogging A social network A microblog and social A large social network where people create profiles, exchange messages, and report status updates. A video-sharing website popular for user-generated content, video clips, and video blogging. A social news website operated by Google with profiles, status updates, circles, hangouts, and sparks. service that enables network that allows that allows users to users to send users to post text, submit stories and text-based posts of up images, video, and share via reblogging. vote them up or down to 140 characters. PROS Easy way to interact with clients and Great platform to Gives brands the One of the best Ability to quickly respond to clients and Great for brand share content and exposure and customer relations venues to build your brand through video blogs and tutorials. opportunity gain a large amount of customers. Can be links with a younger integrated with other Google applications. customers. demographic of bloggers. exposure. CONS Promotion must find a Administration is Traffic is often limited Images tend to garner traffic, but most of it delicate balance difficult and some Not SEO friendly. to site and difficult to Not designed for between content and small business owners redirect back to a comes from within customer interaction. spam. Large follower drop off rate. find most clients don't primary website. Tumblr. use Google+. A HOW TO BEGIN Now that you are familiar with each social network, the next step is to register and create your personal social media profile. HOW TO BEGIN LEARN THE LINGO 2 Follow other users that are in your field, clients, and Create a Twitter handle. Reply: Use this to address a public Use either your business message to a user. name or a name your customers. RT clients and customers will Retweet: This indicates a posting is a recognize. retweet from another user. 4 Recruit followers by letting DM Direct Message: You can only send a direct message to someone who is following you. Make it onto #FF (Follow people know you've joined Friday) lists. These lists recommend other Twitter users follow you. Twitter. Post to other social media platforms and websites with links back to your Twitter. Hashtag: Used to categorize tweets and keeps tweets grouped together. You must set up a personal profile before you create a company page (it is against T&C to create a profile for your business.) Create your company page and add company information, photos, videos, upcoming events, and links back to your website. Like: This allows other users to know if you LIKE appreciate a particular post. POKE STATUS Poke: A way to interact with friends and has flirting connotations. Avoid in business matters. Join groups on Facebook that are relevant to your business and company Status: A microblogging feature to inform other users of your actions and thoughts. TAG Tag: Marks a photo or video with text to identify a person. interests. Before you set up a YouTube account, you must 2 If the answer is yes, set up You Tube LIKE Like: YouTube users have the ability to vote videos up or down with the like or unlike buttons. your YouTube account. first decide if video content Your account will be linked VIEW View: Usually refers to viewer count, which keeps a record of the number of views a video receives. creation will benefit your with any Google accounts you have. business. 4 Connect with customers by Once your first video is posted, share it through your other social media platforms liking or commenting on user customer testimonials. such as Facebook. CIRCLE Circle: A categorization system for friends and followers. Google+ provides a step-by-step guide to setting up your Google+ page with the ability to customize your page's public profile. Add team members, VIPS, and customers to separate Google+ circles to organize GREEN Green: When a post is marked with a green button it is public. your news feeds. BLUE Connect your Google+ page Begin posting content such as status updates, videos, or photos to your Google+ Blue: When a post is marked with a blue button, it is only for people in your circles. to your website using the Google+ badge. HANGOUT Hangout: A group video chat feature for users in your circle. page. Tumblr requires a bit more planning and designing than the other social media sites. DASH Dash: Short for dashboard, it is the main Begin to post. The most popular Tumblr posts often have images associated with news feed of Tumblr blogs you follow. Heart: Users can like posts by clicking on the heart above the post in their dash. You need to choose a theme them. when creating a profile. Follow other blogs from clients, customers, and fellow TAG Tag: Categorization system for posts that allows users to find new blogs. When you create posts on Tumblr you can have them instantly shared with your Twitter and Facebook feeds. businesses. BERLOG Reblog: Users can reblog posts they enjoy to their own blog. O Digg is a social bookmarking site. After you create a profile you can post links for other users to "digg." 2 Try to create catchy or interesting headlines and content that other Digg members may enjoy and DIGG Digg: Refers to users liking a post. digg TOP NEWS Top News: The main page of Digg that shows the most shared posts on Digg. make viral. Post your Digg link to your other social media sites to encourage traffic to the article. SOCIAL MEDIA AUDIENCE SIZE Just how many people can your page reach? Below are the most recent figures on the number of registered users for each platform. TWITTER FACEBOOK GOOGLE YOUTUBE TUMBLR DIGG 100 MILLION 800 MILLION 62 MILLION 490 MILLION 41 MILLION 17 MILLION *UNIQUE USERS *UNIQUE USERS SOURCES: FACEBOOK.COMI TWITTER.COM I YOUTUBE.COMI TUMBLR.COM I DIGG.COM I PLUS.GOOGLE.COM I SOCIALMEDIAEXAMINER.COM I DATADIAL.COM I BUSINESS2COMMUNITY.COM I MASHABLE.COM I DUMMIES.COM I NYTIMES.COM I TECHCRUNCH.COM Flowtown. In Partnership with Column Five TUMBLR A GOOGLE + YOUTUBE FACEBOOK TWITTER O