But Where Do I Start?

So many choices! Where do I start?

Small business owners, consultants, and entrepreneurs who are contemplating using social media, at this point in time, are often overwhelmed by the sheer variety and volume of social media sites and tools that are now available.  Those of us who have been immersed in social media for some time have been able to see, evaluate, implement, or ignore the latest social media entrants, as they came along.  Seeing them all, for the first time, can be daunting!

As with so many other business ventures, I favor starting with "the basics."  For social media, those basics are Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Get involved with Facebook because that's where your current and future customers are.  Use Twitter, because that's where consumers go for instant news and answers about products and services.  Set up a LinkedIn account, because that's where other people in your field and vendors or partners you might want to work with are.

We'll talk more about how to use each of these sites.  For now, just create a basic account for each one.

Some startup tips:

1. Use the same account name - your real one! - on all of these social media sites, even if you have to create a more fanciful Twitter username, to find one that's unique.
2. If you don't already have one, get a good, professional-looking photograph of yourself (head and shoulders only), for use as your profile picture on all of the social media sites.  Be sure to smile!
3. Use the same basic description of who you are and what you do on all of these sites.  The Twitter version will be a précis, because it's limited to 160 characters.

See you next time, as we delve deeper into using social media for business.