social media and small business

You can set up a business page on Facebook via your own personal page. You will need to enter your business information, business category, profile image (use your logo if you have one) and your cover photo. The next step is your username, which should reflect your business name and will be used in Facebook url. (e.g. www.facebook.com/xyzplumbing). Also add a detailed description of your business in the Our Story section so people can see exactly what services you offer. Once you are set up you need to start creating posts. Initially create some basic posts to explain your business and maybe introduce yourself and your staff. Try sharing some different content, maybe jobs you've completed, some customer reviews, pictures of your business or your latest conquests, any special deals you may have going, changes to your opening hours for things like public holidays. Remember to link posts back to your web page. Make sure you have a link to your Facebook page on your web site, clearly visible and on every page. Unfortunately on Facebook your posts don't reach all your followers. Facebook will initially display your posts to around 5% of your followers and then increase this percentage based on the reaction your post receives. If you post gets lots of likes and shares Facebook will show it to more of your followers, but rarely all of them.

Instagram
Instagram is based on a visual platform with all posts in image or video formats. You can create a new business account from scratch or log in with your Facebook business page.

Twitter
Twitter is similar to other social media for businesses. You need to create a business profile using your business name, description and NAP. Compelling images for your profile picture and banner are essential. Your twitter handle should reflect your business name. Tweets should be similar to other social media content you post - with deals, specials, recent work and anything your customers might react to. Include videos as well as image posts. twitter setup

YouTube
Depending on your business, YouTube can offer a great platform for small business to market video content. YouTube has more than 2 billion uses world wide. Some businesses can benefit by producing content that people want to watch, like DYI type videos where people can get a step by step guide on performing certain tasks or activities. You can create a YouTube channel for your business that gives you a centralised space for all of you video content.

Pinterest
Pinterest is a visual discovery engine for finding ideas like recipes, home and style inspiration, and more. Pins are bookmarks that people use to save ideas they love on Pinterest. Pins can be images, videos or products. Businesses can benefit from Pinterest because people search for pins that give them information on products they are looking to buy.