Most small business owners that I talk to are pretty clueless when it comes to social media. They have all heard of Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn but, apart from maybe opening an account, have never really explored them. However, social media is far more than Twitter and Facebook. What many people don’t realize is that blogging is actually at the heart of social media. Blogs not only allow you to provide valuable content to your customers but they also provide a platform for all your other social media efforts.
Social Media Hierarchy of Importance
So where do you start and what is the most important? Here is what I consider to be the hierarchy of importance for social media tools:
1. Blogging
2. Twitter
3. Facebook
4. LinkedIn
5. Flickr and YouTube (for photos and videos)
6. Social Bookmarking (Digg, StumbleUpon, Delicious)
Before I hear from people who say I am crazy because they have had wonderful success building traffic with Youtube videos or through Digg let me emphasize that this is the hierarchy of importance that I have found to be most common for small businesses. I recommend trying them all and seeing what works best for your business but if you do this yourself expect a major time drain as you learn the ins and outs of each tool.
Where to Start?
The One Hour Blogger is focused on blogging, so I won’t be spending too much time on the other social media tools. In a future post I will deal more directly with Twitter, because I think that is one of the best tools to integrate with your blog. Here are two helpful resources that will help you get started with social media:
Social Media for Small Business eBook – from Duct Tape Marketing
Trust Agents – book by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith
The eBook is a real nuts and bolts “how to” for all the major social media tools and Trust Agents will help you develop the right mindset as you use these tools. You can read both in just a few hours – so do yourself and your business a favor and learn about this new world.
Blogging is the Heart of Social Media
Blogging was really the original social media tool. It has always allowed you to connect with people who were interested in your business. The real power of blogs from a social media perspective is not the content but the comments. Blog commenting allows a real conversation to take place among readers of a blog. On the very popular blogs I often find I learn just as much from reading the comments to a blog post as from the actual post itself. It is particularly useful when the blog author responds to the comments and interacts with all the readers, fleshing out what he or she wrote. Chris Brogan and Jason Falls are two bloggers who excel at this.
Social Media marketing is still a very new field. But I can guarantee that it is a field that will only become more important as time goes on. Every small business owner should have at least a passing knowledge of social media and the real leaders will embrace it. Be an active blogger and converse with your readers. You blog will then provide a great launchpad for your other social media efforts.
