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Fresh News: Four social media outlets business owners should be using but aren't
Four social media outlets business owners should be using but aren’t
Guest post by Cashier Live
As a small business owner, you know you need to be on Facebook. Right now, one out of 13 people in the world are on Facebook. It only makes sense to show up where your customers hang out. However, where else, apart from Facebook, should you turn your online marketing attention?
Google +
The behemoth search engine unveiled its highly anticipated social media network last summer. In November, they made it possible to start building your brand pages. To get started, you need to set up a Google account for your business and use it to create your G + account.
Use Google Hangouts. Hangouts are a way to have a face-to-face conversation in real time with up to 10 other people. You can host them at a regularly scheduled time or spontaneously. These are a great way to put a face to your brand.
Yelp
Yelp is highlighting local businesses this holiday season with the “Yelp Shops Local Pledge”. The goal is stimulate local economies by turning a least 5% of holiday spending to local businesses.
Outside of the holidays, Yelp is still a fantastic place for your small business to be. Last August the site had 25 million visitors. It slices and dices targeted traffic by city and state directly to your website.
You can use Yelp for local networking too. For example, if you’re a bridal salon, you’re selling gowns for brides. What are brides doing? They’re planning a wedding! That means, they’ll need a photographer, a location, invitations, a cake, and a million other things. As a bridal salon owner, you know people in these other professions. Recommend the ones you like. They’ll recommend you and you just made your bride’s life easier!
Pinterest
A social media outlet that works as a bulletin board. Their Twitter bio states “Pinterest is a virtual pinboard. Collect the things you love.”
Here’s how it works. You request an invitation. In the meantime, you can browse around and see how other people are using Pinterest. You can share things you love like vintage pianos painted teal, vacation spots, and books to read. It’s a great site for those in the decorating and beauty industries especially.
Quora
Described by one blogger as “the love child of Wikipedia and ‘Ask Jeeves’” the goal of Quora is to be the largest Q & A site on the web. An all-in-one resource if you will.
You can ask questions and leave answers on any topic under the sun. Plus, you can follow people or topics of interest and they can follow you. Follow thought leaders in your industry, follow your competition. It’s a bit like Facebook in that you have a newsfeed. It’s like Twitter in that you can ask and answer questions. You can also vote on answers.
Best of all, it brings in people you’re already connected with on other social media networks so you can continue the conversation in another venue. How can you use it in your business? By answering questions around your topic of expertise, you’ll continue to build your brand and showcase your experience. You can also use it for market research to learn the burning questions of the day from your target audience.
Conclusion
These four social media networks can help you build your business and expand your network over the next 12 months. Which one will you start with today?
Cashier Live is a POS software developer specializing in solutions like pharmacy, book shop, and grocery store POS software. Cashier Live offers solutions for across all small business POS software and offers a trial of free POS software on their site.
Reports I have written:
 Making Social Media work for your business - for Ark Group just published! |
 Social Media: The New Business Communication Landscape - for Ark Group |
 How to get started with podcasting in your organisation - for Melcrum Publishing |
 Contributing author to How to use social media to solve critical internal communication issues - for Melcrum Publishing |
 Contributing author to How to communicate with hard-to-reach employees - for Melcrum Publishing |
 Contributing author to How to use social media to engage employees - for Melcrum Publishing |
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