Has Social Networking been of benefit to you?

Toppers

Toppers

Member
How beneficial has Social Networking been for your business?
We are just starting to expand our web presence but would like to know how it has worked for others in the industry.

Feel free to follow Toppers on the links below!
 
I've found social media, in particular Twitter very useful. It's allowed me to reach potential new clients and contacts.
It's also great for keeping in touch with friends and current clients.

I've picked up hints and tips, great advice and ways of doing things.

I think if you haven't got a social media presence you're really missing out to be honest.
 
Agree with Gareth @ Dot. Twitter has been a good experience and allowed us to build relationships and for prospective customers to gain live insight into our culture. The cost (time) invested has paid dividends.
 
My company has just started with Social Networking.
We are preparing for the launch of our online ordering as well as a major rebrand.

Feel free to follow us and i'l return the favour.
 
Toppers said:
How beneficial has Social Networking been for your business?
We are just starting to expand our web presence but would like to know how it has worked for others in the industry.

Feel free to follow Toppers on the links below!
Click to expand...


its good bcoz social networking site r like drugs to most people now days they cant seem to get off of them and when they do they have withdrawal symptoms lol !


forums was 1st then came bloggs then facefuck etc
 
To date I've found forums more useful than Facebook or Twitter - admittedly, I've been fairly inactive since not too long after I started the Twitter so haven't had much opportunity to see what I can get from it, whilst Facebook I found the majority of people were simply friends who added it.

I think forums, on the other hand, have been great - a really good opportunity to converse with other small business owners and build relationships a bit more, as well as to see any opportunities when they arise.
 
true but if you had set your account up in your business name im sure you would have a bit of both friends and mainly clients / people intrested in what you doing , so many small businesses growing because of the ammount of customers from social networking websites.:icon_notworthy:
 
Inktelligence said:
Facebooks been good for me so far, plenty of enquiries + a decent few orders, Twitter on the other hand has been the complete opposite.
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Yeah, but it's not just about orders. For example, we write articles and blogs to help clients, keep people informed and, most of all, boost Search Engine rankings for our business. When we write them we post them on Facebook and Twitter. Facebook is fine for this but Twitter is king for getting your stuff noticed.

In fact we have had articles included on some top (and highly ranked) websites thanks to Twitter and each one with a lovely, healthy back link. This is really driving visitors and we are getting enquiries and orders off the back of that.

You need to expand your thinking on what Social Media can do for you and your business :icon_biggrin:
 
Corrosive said:
Yeah, but it's not just about orders. For example, we write articles and blogs to help clients, keep people informed and, most of all, boost Search Engine rankings for our business. When we write them we post them on Facebook and Twitter. Facebook is fine for this but Twitter is king for getting your stuff noticed.

In fact we have had articles included on some top (and highly ranked) websites thanks to Twitter and each one with a lovely, healthy back link. This is really driving visitors and we are getting enquiries and orders off the back of that.

You need to expand your thinking on what Social Media can do for you and your business :icon_biggrin:
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Thanks Corrosive

I totally agree with what your saying, Im fairly new to new to Business Socail Networking so Ive been spending much more time on this recently, trying to learn as much as possible which can only benefit my business in the long run, so any sites/blogs which you think could help me with any advice/strategies would be much appreciated.

Thanks
Wayne
Inktelligence
 
Inktelligence said:
Thanks Corrosive

I totally agree with what your saying, Im fairly new to new to Business Socail Networking so Ive been spending much more time on this recently, trying to learn as much as possible which can only benefit my business in the long run, so any sites/blogs which you think could help me with any advice/strategies would be much appreciated.

Thanks
Wayne
Inktelligence
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Strategy is pretty straightforward to be honest.

  • Keep content fresh and update regularly, write stuff that folks will want to read.
  • Don't just self-promote, make it useful and relevant to your target customers.
  • Shout about your new content wherever you can, Facebook, Twitter, Digg, Buzz, forums etc.
  • Make sure you are well represented across all directories and social media (this may help Bristol Web Design by Yoto Creative - Free online advertising for your business)
  • Keep learning, understand your website and how visitors view it. Particularly use Google Webmaster Tools and Analytics. Make sure you set goals and review your site performance on a daily basis.
  • Finally accept that all of this is bloody hard work! :icon_wink:

Hope that helps.
 
Corrosive said:
Strategy is pretty straightforward to be honest.

  • Keep content fresh and update regularly, write stuff that folks will want to read.
  • Don't just self-promote, make it useful and relevant to your target customers.
  • Shout about your new content wherever you can, Facebook, Twitter, Digg, Buzz, forums etc.
  • Make sure you are well represented across all directories and social media (this may help Bristol Web Design by Yoto Creative - Free online advertising for your business)
  • Keep learning, understand your website and how visitors view it. Particularly use Google Webmaster Tools and Analytics. Make sure you set goals and review your site performance on a daily basis.
  • Finally accept that all of this is bloody hard work! :icon_wink:

Hope that helps.
Click to expand...

Would you put the Twitter success down to including relevant hash tags as well? It's been a while since I've been able to write articles but I do them for all the same reasons you mentioned earlier, just without hash tags which might be silly for all I know! :icon_biggrin:
 
Where we have found hashtags useful is if we are writing about a trending topic and you want a barrage of extra followers. See what is trending and if you can quickly write a piece about that topic. Then post it a few times, in different ways, with hashtags and watch your follower count go up.

The problem with this being that trending topics tend to be about the latest episode of Glee or the Beckham's new baby so not that relevant to either of our industries! I think we've only once been able to write quickly enough about a trending topic to get any 'juice' from it.

Getting yourself 'listed' is another good method. Find out who your localised tweet listers are. There are a few guys on twitter who have lists dedicated to business in the Bristol area. We follow them, they follow us and, hopefully, we end up on their lists of 'Bristol Tweeters to follow'.

Finally Twitter is great (along with an up-to-date XML sitemap of course) for getting fresh content crawled really quickly. In fact we can get new articles crawled and listed by Google in a couple of hours with a concerted effort (Twitter and Facebook) to get pages noticed.

Hope that helps your Twitter campaign a bit. :icon_cheers:
 
Corrosive said:
Where we have found hashtags useful is if we are writing about a trending topic and you want a barrage of extra followers. See what is trending and if you can quickly write a piece about that topic. Then post it a few times, in different ways, with hashtags and watch your follower count go up.

The problem with this being that trending topics tend to be about the latest episode of Glee or the Beckham's new baby so not that relevant to either of our industries! I think we've only once been able to write quickly enough about a trending topic to get any 'juice' from it.

Getting yourself 'listed' is another good method. Find out who your localised tweet listers are. There are a few guys on twitter who have lists dedicated to business in the Bristol area. We follow them, they follow us and, hopefully, we end up on their lists of 'Bristol Tweeters to follow'.

Finally Twitter is great (along with an up-to-date XML sitemap of course) for getting fresh content crawled really quickly. In fact we can get new articles crawled and listed by Google in a couple of hours with a concerted effort (Twitter and Facebook) to get pages noticed.

Hope that helps your Twitter campaign a bit. :icon_cheers:
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Cheers mate; keep meaning to get back up to speed with articles and get everything up to date so I'll definitely bear this in mind when I, hopefully, get going on it asap :icon_smile:
 
dedwardp said:
Cheers mate; keep meaning to get back up to speed with articles and get everything up to date so I'll definitely bear this in mind when I, hopefully, get going on it asap :icon_smile:
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It is hard to keep on top of, especially when you are busy. Writing content is really important to your website but it is one of the first things that suffers when you've been working for ten hours a day. We totally blitzed a load of content when we updated our website last year and it has paid dividends in Google (try Googling 'web designers in bristol' ... Front page baby, yeah :icon_biggrin:) but that leads to more work and the fresh content starts to suffer again. That client work vs own promotion cycle is a nightmare sometimes and I feel like this guy >>> :icon_Wall:
 
Fantastic advice corosive.
I'm going to start using hash tags from now on our tweets.

Feel free to follow us and i'll return the favour!
 
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