Let’s talk about small businesses and social media here on Girl Talk, there are folks out there who haven’t gotten to dive into it and those who are great at it. Do small businesses need it?
Host: Welcome back to Girl Talk. Right now we’re talking about a topic that plagues a lot of us, it’s good and bad right? Technology, when it’s working it’s great. When it’s not it’s tough. We’re joined by Madison Geeks, our favorite geeks. We’ve got Cy with Madison Geeks and Gracious Rebel Consulting with us today. Cyborg how are you?
Cy: I’m fine, excellent, how are you guys?
Host: Great! So obviously, we’ve talked tech with you before. We’re going to cover a specific topic that I think is tough for some individuals and some businesses to sort of master because there is a lot to know. We’re talking about social media. Let’s talk about small businesses.There are folks out there who are great at it. There are folks out there that really haven’t gotten to dive in yet. Do small businesses need it? Do they need social media?
Cy: When I talk to businesses one of the number one things they say is that the best form of advertising is via word of mouth and in the digital age social media is word of mouth advertising.
Host: That’s a really good point. So as a small business owner what should I be posting?
Cy: It depends on which outlet you are posting on. If you are posting on Facebook you don’t want to be too…sound too much like an advertisement. For example when you are posting on your wall, there is Facebook advertising and there is a place for that… But when you are posting on your wall what you are looking to do is to establish your reputation and rapport with your customers. And to make your relationships with your customers an on-going thing even when they are not in your facility.
Host: An example, maybe, on phrasing something? We’re having a great day at the ice cream shop today…?
Cy: Oh yeah. People love to see, people love pictures. So if you can get a really fun picture, if we’re talking about the ice cream shop, of everybody showing their favorite kind of ice cream cone. All of your staff together. It creates a connection because people say “Oh, these are real people, they’re not just ice cream cone throwers”. (Laughs)
Host: So we do we have an example of how many times you should be making those kids of posts?
Cy: On Facebook you don’t post as often as you do on some of the other social media sites, such as Twitter. Twitter is almost a “you can’t post too much” site. Whereas Facebook, you can over due it. One or twice a day maybe three times a day on Twitter, depending on your business and the types of posts you’re doing. If you’re throwing in Memes…everybody loves Memes that are somewhat related to your business…you can brand them by putting your logo on the Meme. you can end up doing more posts because that’s very shareable content that people appreciate.
Host: Good tip! Can we followup on the Twitter? How can you say you can’t Tweet too much but you can post too much on Facebook? Why is that?
Cy: Because Twitter has a very short lifecycle. You can be posting throughout the day because when people open up their Twitter, they’re only going to see the most recent Tweets, which it kind of works that way for Facebook but their algorithm is a little bit different. So with Twitter, people are inundated with information all day long. If you posted something in the morning, unless people specifically decide to go to your Twitter page, they’re probably not going to see that post. I know some people who do a really good job with Twitter who sometimes will even post the same type of Twitter post more than once in the same day. Whereas with Facebook it stays there a little bit longer. It’s a bit more evergreen.
Host: Let’s talk for some folks out there who aren’t as internet savy or social media specifically savvy, time management. How much time should somebody be spending. Is it a big undertaking, any tips to make it faster?
Cy: It doesn’t need to be a massive undertaking. There is a learning curve involved and that’s where Madison Geeks and Gracious Rebel Consulting come in. We can help you guys to help small businesses, any small business to learn how to do it. And we provide them with a nice proprietary suite of tools to make it faster. So I say a business is posting anywhere between 5 and 15 hours a month depending on the business. Smaller business probably don’t be needing to spend as much time. It really depends. That’s where we can sit down with our customers and make sure they have the right plan in place to meet their objectives and their type of business.
Host: You can provide some great tricks of the trade that will save them a lot of time.
Cy: Yes
Host: We need to talk about this again. Thank you so much Cy from Madison Geeks and Gracious Rebel Consulting. We’ve got some fun topics today, technology of course is one. Coming up next we’re talking about men’s services here at Radiant Skin Therapy.
Madison Geeks appeared on a June 2016 Channel 57 WI57 WIFS Madison Girl Talk segment to talk about Social Media for Small Business.