Bob Milliken
Bob Milliken

In my experience small business owners are always on the hunt for better ways to effectively communicate with customers and prospects and, if you are like me, you have found that the use of social media for marketing is practically inescapable.

For good reason: companies gain access to increased visibility, more sales opportunities, and more opportunities to define their brand. But why limit your business to a few of the most well-known options? The internet is full of useful social media platforms, and we want to let you know some of our favorites.

Having great content on your site is the magnet that attracts visitors. But, to reap nominal rewards from social media marketing, you need to devise new methods to stand out from the crowd.

Meetup

For people with similar interests, Meetup is a great site to plan face-to-face meetings. Does your company sell hiking, camping, and backpacking products? Organize a meetup for the people in your community to go on a hike.

Eventbrite

If you’re looking for a more formal event platform, Eventbrite helps you to organize, plan, and market your event so you can ensure its success. Another way it differs from Meetup is its recruitment potential. You can easily market yourself as an expert in an industry to either attract freelancers or educate potential customers about the problems you aim to solve for them.
Townscript, and Picantic, offer similar services and can go to great lengths to improve your social media reputation.

social-mediaAnswer Forums

How many times have you scoffed at the amateur responses to the questions posted on answer forums?  Take a step back and you’ll realize that these people are often searching for information about certain industries or products. Jump in and provide helpful answer to thier questions, and establish your credibility by identifying your expertise and product.

Disqus

It’s easy to get stuck in a narrow interpretation of ‘social media.’ It’s just web technology that helps us to communicate with each other, right? By embedding apps such as Disqus into your online content, you can connect with readers and external websites to boost your material as well as your reputation.

Slack

Most people who use the messaging app Slack see it as a way to communicate with friends and coworkers. However, with a little creativity you can join conversations from all over the world to boost your online presence. There are countless channels devoted to industries, categories, hobbies and more. All you have to do is insert yourself and your company into the conversation to get people talking about your business!

It’s hard to deny that technology has made our lives more complicated. We still believe it has made up for this downside tenfold, but we understand it can feel a little overwhelming at times.

Bob Milliken is the TheITguy@CascadiaSystemsGroup.com specializing in helping businesses with their IT needs. Discover how great local IT services can be.604.270.1730.