Ewan Mannington, FMB Web Manager, explains how many small businesses use social networks to engage with their customers and build their client base. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc. provide a valuable platform to market your business. Your audience is huge so join up for free and promote your business to potential clients now.
THE THREE SOCIAL NETWORKS TO JOIN
Facebook is the most popular social networking site. Recent statistics show that around half the population of the UK have a Facebook account. Many small businesses are now realising the large amount of potential customers they can reach by just creating a Facebook page.
FACEBOOK - ENSURE YOUR BUSINESS PAGE IS EFFECTIVE:
1. Set up your page correctly. Facebook is very simple to use once your page is up and running. Firstly you must have a personal Facebook page in order to build a Facebook page for your business. (Many people get stuck trying to build a business page without first having a personal page). Once you have your personal account set up just login and select ‘Create a Page’ located in the Facebook footer.
In order to customise your address and become visible in the Facebook search you must have a minimum of 25 ‘likes’. You can then go to www.facebook.com/username and apply for your friendly web address.
2. Make your page interesting. When you set up a page for your business, it must be eye catching. Add a company logo and post photos of successful projects your company has undertaken
3. Promote your Facebook page. Ensure that a link to your Facebook page is added to your website. If you have an account with other social networks also include that link. You could also include a link in your email signature
4. Update your page regularly. The page will become stale if you don’t update it with images or write new comments on your wall (If you have a Twitter account you can make all of your tweets come through to your Facebook wall). You should also reply to comments posted on your wall. In particular, ensure that any negative comments posted are responded to in a professional manner and not ignored - this won’t reflect well on you or your company
5. Use Facebook applications. Facebook offers over 550,000 active applications. Use them correctly to enhance your page. Here are some of the best:
-
Networked blogs. If you are keen on the idea of blogging, this app will enable you to promote it to your followers and the Facebook community
-
YouTube video box. Show a selection of relevant YouTube videos from your business page
-
Social RSS. If you have a selection of news sources that you feel may be relevant to your audience use Social RSS to create an RSS feed. Selected news updates will automatically fi lter through onto your wall
-
Flickr tab. You can share photo albums so pictures you add to Flickr can simultaneously be transferred onto your Facebook page
-
Twitter app. Bring all your tweets over from Twitter so they appear on your Facebook wall.
And once you've joined up don't forget to Like the FMB.
Twitter is an instant messaging system that lets you send brief text messages (up to 140 characters) to a list of followers. Businesses start tweeting to keep their customers updated and raise their online profile by gaining followers. It’s easy to use and quick to sign up.
TIPS FOR SETTING UP YOUR ACCOUNT AND USING TWITTER:
1. Customise your profile. Add your company name, a short paragraph about your company and a link to your website. Also attach your company logo and select the ‘Design’ option to customise your page’s background. You can add your company logo to the background of the page to make it more prominent.
2. Choose who to follow. Think carefully about who you think your company should be following. Following someone else is often a good way to get to follow you. Try and get a balance between influencers in the construction industry and clients/potential clients. Remember that a list of who you follow will appear on your Twitter page.
3. Familiarise yourself with twitter terminology.
-
If you attach the @ symbol to a username in a tweet it will appear in that person’s Twitter feed
-
You can send ‘direct messages’ which are private tweets that you can send to any of your followers
-
You can ‘retweet’ other people’s tweets which can keep your account ticking over when you can’t think of anything interesting to tweet yourself
-
‘Hashtags’ are a great way to increase your followers. People on twitter follow hashtags as well as people so including popular tags (i.e. #building, #construction) in your tweets should help to recruit new followers.
4. Link to your website and Facebook page. Including your weblinks in tweets can help build traffic to your website. You could also include a link to your Facebook page. This is a good way to increase your ‘likes’.
5. Download a Twitter client. TweetDeck is the most popular. It’s free and it allows you to manage all your Twitter activity from one place www.tweetdeck.com
6. Download your mobile app. Providing you have the right application, there is nothing to stop you from tweeting from your mobile. Here are some of the most popular apps:
7. Set up a Bit.ly account. Bit.ly is a URL shortening tool that allows you to significantly reduce the length of long links. Create an account and join up your Twitter profile so you can tweet from Bit.ly (http://bit.ly).
8. Add Twitter to your other profiles. Facebook, LinkedIn, your email signature and website.
And once you’ve joined up don’t forget to follow the FMB.
LinkedIn is less well known then the other two and is aimed more towards business and professionals. It’s a great place to find contacts that you may need and also advertise your company to thousands of other business professionals. You can start building your network by sending out invites to contacts. If they accept your invite, you could potentially widen out your network further by also gaining access to their list of contacts.
TIPS FOR USING LINKEDIN
-
Only invite people that you have met or you know – if you send out random invitations you’ll only end up annoying people
-
Spend some time thinking about the best people to invite (i.e. previous clients, business professionals)
-
It’s better to have 30 good contacts, rather than hundreds of people that you don’t really know
-
Make sure your profile looks professional - remember that people who see your profile could potentially be contacting you for work.
And once you've joined up don't forget to follow the FMB.
FMBUILDING NETWORK - The FMB's own social network
The FMBuilding Network is a social network just for FMB members; use it to get the latest news form the FMB, contact the FMB and other members, join discussions with other members on the forums, chat with other members in real time, add photos of your projects, set up your own blog and read others.
Sign up today by visiting: www.fmbuildingnetwork.org.uk
FIND A BUILDER WEBSITE
This has been enhanced, resulting in even more potential jobs leads for you.
To ensure that you receive these valuable leads please keep us up to date with your email address.
If you do not have an email address you can still see your job notifications by visiting “my find a builder" (Member login) section on the website www.fmb.org.uk/fab/member.
All job notifications are stored on your member section of Find A Builder so please remember to make frequent visits and keep up to date with job matches.
