The Language Lab, like many small businesses, has entered the vast world of social media. There’s my blog of course, my newsletter and my Facebook page. Plus, you can follow me on Twitter.
I’m enjoying these new ways of connecting with people. But like any small business owner, I’m also keen to learn how I can best use social media to help grow my business. So I’ve been reading, researching, and following the work of people like Mitch Joel and Chris Brogan. They’re leaders in the field of social media and marketing, and I find their work really interesting. Yet, after reading parts of Joel’s book, Six Pixels of Separation, or Brogan’s website, I get the impression they think: “This social media thing, it’s a snap!”
Well, here’s my confession. I find it rather daunting figuring out which forms of social media to use and how best to use them. There are so many different ways that these tools and networks can be used for marketing a small business. But how can you tell what will engage people the most, and what will help make your business more successful?
Frankly, I’m still looking for answers to this question. And I hope you can help. If you have some good ideas about the best ways to use social media for small business, I’d be delighted to hear them.
Meanwhile, I’m happy to share my expertise, which is in the field of oral and written business communication. Unlike social media, the requirements of good writing for a business are a little more fixed. It’s easy for me to see what works and what doesn’t, when it comes to good writing.
I guess to some degree that’s true of writing in social media too. One of the things that I’ve learned is that there are ways to write for Twitter and Facebook (or other forms of social media) that are more or less successful. Here are just two things I’ve learned.
Twitter: Where Every Word Counts