As you have heard me say before, it is important that small businesses begin using social media. Large companies are using it to have conversations with individual customers, to thank them and to solve problems for them. The problem for large companies is that they have so many customers that it is not possible for them to address every issue with every customer within the confines of social media. Their customers get the ‘not so personal’ attention of the much dreaded big customer service departments.

This is where the small business owner has a huge advantage. Your customers are able to get personal attention from you, the owner of the business. Customers appreciate that and will speak highly of you and your business when they feel you appreciate them.

This is where listening is important. Social media is a conversation broken down into short statements, but it is a conversation nonetheless. Being a good listener is a big part of conversation.

It is only by listening that we learn how our customers feel about us and our business. It is by listening that we are able to publicly resolve issues that our customers are having. And, it is by listening that we are able to publicly let our customers know that we appreciate them.

So, how to we listen with social media? On Twitter, for example, there is the obvious way of just seeing what they are saying as it is being posted but, let’s face it, that’s sometimes impossible to do. Many posts can go by without you seeing them and if you are not following the commenter, you will not see them at all. A better way would be to search @YourName. By doing this, you will be able to see what anyone says rather than just those that you follow. If you are not following them, this gives you the opportunity to not only follow them but also to respond appropriately to their comment.

So, you are listening, right?! If not, get started. It will make a huge difference in your social media endeavors.

Do you have a website? We all know that having a web presence is important. So before we really know any better, we go out, find a web designer, determine what the site should look like and how it should work. Several weeks later, after a few design changes and tweaks, it’s done and online. We couldn’t be happier, right.

After the site has been up several weeks, we have learned more about how the site should look or be laid out or just wish we had done some things a little differently. If we want the changes to happen now though, we have to rehire the web designer to make those modifications and that’s going to cost more money and it’s going to take time. Not that those changes really need to happen immediately. But, once you decide what you want, doesn’t it just make you crazy to have to wait for even the simplest changes? It does me (and maybe it’s just me but…).

There’s another way. Instead of a static website that rarely changes, I’d like you to consider a blog. You have the ability to change a blog as often as you wish. Make the changes you want, don’t like them, change it back. It’s very simple. The changes can happen on your schedule. Immediately or a few days from now. A site that is changing and evolving will keep your customers coming back to see what’s going on.

We recommend a WordPress blog. WordPress is free to use and is easily customizable. There are literally thousands of plug-ins that are also free to make the site do what you want it to do. You want the site to be SEO (Search Engine Optimized) friendly, there’s a plug-in for that. You want the site to have analytics, there’s a plug-in for that. You need a sign-up form for a mailing list, no problem, there’s a plug-in for that too. If you can think of it, there’s probably already a plug-in designed to it.

There are many free themes available as well. The theme is the skin. What the site looks like – the colors, fonts, how it’s laid out, etc. Install a new theme and the look and feel of the site changes. Installing a new theme literally takes a few seconds (finding the theme you want to use takes much longer). Along with the free themes that are available, there are also premium themes that can be purchased. The ones that we recommend cost about $100 give or take, have great support forums and free updates. Installation is a snap.

You can have your blog hosted free at WordPress but we recommend you buy your own domain name and have it hosted by the provider of your choice. You should be able to get hosting for $15 per month or less. Blue Host is an excellent service that is very WordPress and user friendly.

I’ll be writing more on this topic in future posts but if you are anxious to get started but would like some help, we offer website/blog installation. We would be glad to help you get started.

Thanks for spending some time with us today. We appreciate it!

Photo credit: Donncha @ InPhotos.org