Inside Small Business | Small Business & Home Business Marketing

Ask The Panel

Elizabeth Jensen from Cherries Jubilee Creations asks:

1. How should I use Facebook and Twitter for my business?

Nicole: Typical to social media, updates are about quality and not quantity. However, there is a balance. Post too frequently and you’ll clog up people’s feed and irritate them. Post infrequently and you’ll get lost in the feed. For Twitter, which is created for more frequent posts, I think a good minimum is once a day. For Facebook updating your status once a week is a good minimum, but also keep in mind you should regularly be uploading new content to your page as well.

Assuming people are following your Twitter account because they’re interested in your business, you should post things that are of interest to these existing and potential customers. Industry going-ons, specials or discounts you’re offering, tips and tricks, new products or services, responses to mentions of your business and so forth are all relevant. Keep in mind that it’s easy to focus too much on the business aspect, and lose personality. Without being overtly personal, share details about less business focused things like a company party, company milestones (our 100th customer!), funny work happenings, the new color you painted your office, etc. Keeping your Twitter postings informative but also expressing the unique personality of your business will keep your followers happy and ensure you attract new followers.

Amy: The idea behind both social networking sites is to gain fans (or followers). The more you have, the more people will talk about you. Post some interesting articles or news related to your industry, and you have a good chance of that information going viral. This ultimately gives your site more visitors and hopefully more sales!
Give your followers and the twitter world a reason to follow you. By posting about 3-4 interesting and engaging tweets a day you will keep in front of your followers. Facebook updates can happen less frequently. If you are in the logo business, tweet about logo design tips, or links to nice logos, or up to date info on the latest logo trends. If you are going to tweet about your services, you better give your followers an offer! If you don’t think it’s interesting or compelling than your followers won’t think it is either.

2. What is a more effective, a photo or a logo for my Facebook, Twitter icon?

Curt: Think of your avatar as a virtual business card. Your avatar brands your business, and acts as a free advertisement every time you leave a comment, post an update, or follow another user. With this in mind, having a custom avatar that is based on your logo will help you stand out as a business and not a person.

Keep in mind that most social media sites only allow square images for your avatar, with sizes ranging from as small as 24×24 pixels to as large as 200×200 pixels. If you plan on using your entire logo as your avatar, make sure that it is recognizable and legible at the smallest possible size. If it is not, use an element from your logo that is unique to your business; like the “Y!” for Yahoo, the “M” for McDonalds, or the blue & white globe for AT&T.

Amy: A photo is always more personal. So if you are promoting yourself, go with a photo. If it’s a business and you have a corporate identity, go with your logo, or an element of your logo that your client base can easily recognize as your company that they are now befriending or following.

Posted on Tuesday, September 1st, 2009 at 12:20 pm and is filed under The Panel: Q & A. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.