Keep Your Small Biz Social Media Interaction Personal
It’s funny how it works… small businesses want to look bigger than they are, while corporations want to appear smaller and more personal. No one’s ever satisfied, right?
One thing’s for sure. When it comes to interacting on social media sites, being personal works best no matter the size of your business. When you give your small business a ‘face’ and a story, prospects and customers will feel more comfortable with it.
Pretending to be big or corporate can actually backfire. It’s OK to bring your social media activities down to earth while maintaining a level of professionalism. The two are not exclusive of one another.
According to a recent infographic (below) and blog post from Get Satisfaction:
With the help of social media, small businesses not only set up social communities from where their customers can interact with one another; they also communicate personally with their communities rather than through an established script of standard responses.”
Do you have any advice or best practices that can help small businesses interact personally while keeping things professional?
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4 Responses to Keep Your Small Biz Social Media Interaction Personal
First of all, Jeff, your mentioning Timmy’s has hit my longing button. As a Canadian living in the American southwest, getting my Timmy’s fix is reserved for trips back ‘home.’
I apologize to Starbucks, but I like my Tim Horton’s coffee, even if I never won the “Roll Up the Rim to Win” contest! 🙂 One word of advice on this… wait until you finish drinking the coffee before you start rolling.
Secondly, my heart goes out to you that you missed a hole-in-one by thisssssssssss much. Quite frankly, that sucks.
As for your examples of social media, they do demonstrate two things - engagement and fun. You may not know the person behind the Tim Horton’s social media account, but you engaged with other customers in a personal way.
As always, thanks for weighing in!
Actually, I don’t engage Tim Horton’s with my post.
I post it on my account and try to engage my “friends” and their frustration at not winning - or just winning a donut. If I was a little smarter, I would tag Timmy’s as well so that maybe I could draw more attention and new interaction.
I always enjoy reading your posts.
Oh. As Gilda Radner used to say on SNL, “Never mind.” 🙂
Thanks for the encouragement. Wish more people would jump into the conversation as you have.
My humble advice is to keep it social - it’s called “social media” after all.
A regional coffee chain, Tim Hortons, runs a “roll-up-the-rim” to win promotion every year. I’ll comment on my lack of winning and ask how everyone else is doing or where the “hot” stores are. I get a lot of engagement and it has nothing to do with my organization.
Post about interesting stuff that people who “like” you might like. For example, if you ran a golf-related business, then you might want to tell your “friends” about the golfer from St. Leo, Florida who scored two hole-in-ones in the same round of golf on April 3rd. I’d respond with my almost hole-in-one (6″ - honestly!) story.