Social Media Creates Opportunities & Efficiencies for Small Business
Social media does more than help you reach customers. It also helps your team work faster and stay organized. Earlier posts covered Facebook Advertising and the Facebook Business page. This post looks at other uses, including tools for teamwork, client booking, and training.
How Can Your Team Share Ideas in Real Time?
Social media makes teamwork easy. You may already use Google Docs to share files. Your colleagues can edit them at the same time.
Wikis are another useful tool. You have likely heard the word from Wikipedia. Picture a private Wikipedia filled with facts about your clients, services, and ideas. That is a wiki for your business.
Where should you host your wiki?
You can add a wiki to your own site. That means working with your web developer or IT person. It may suit you well.
You could also test an outside wiki first. Hosted sites called wiki farms let you build and edit many wikis. Like an internal wiki, an outside wiki can be fully private.
Why do wikis help small businesses?
A wiki keeps all the facts about one topic in one place. Here are a few ways to use one.
- Share a new business idea and let your partner edit it.
- Build a wiki about your competition.
- Attach links and files to any page.
- Keep some pages private and share others with clients or partners.
Wikispaces and Wikia are two sites to try.
How Can You Keep Clients and Tasks in Order?
Several social sites now help you manage clients. BookFresh is a new one that is getting a lot of buzz. It lets you manage client appointments online. You can also check them on your smartphone when you are away from your desk.
BookFresh does more than a basic calendar. Your clients can book their own appointments online. They also get reminders.
Remember the Milk is a time tool of a different kind. You can build task lists for yourself. You can also share them with your team.
Why Are These Tools Better Than a Phone Calendar?
These tools are interactive, so they beat a basic calendar app on your iPhone. They also cost less than big software packages. Remember the Milk is free, and others are low-cost.
BookFresh, Remember the Milk, and Ta-Da List are good places to start.
How Can Social Media Help You Train People?
Media sharing sites are great for marketing. They also work well for training and sales pitches. You can record a video and post it to a video site. You can also build a PowerPoint slideshow and upload it online for viewing and embedding.
Why Does Online Training Help Small Businesses?
Videos and slideshows show product demos and detailed steps better than plain text. You could email them, but posting them online has more perks.
- People can open them with ease.
- Viewers can leave comments and feedback.
- Posts can help your SEO.
Which Sites Should You Use?
YouTube is the top video site. You can embed its videos on your website or blog. You can also share them on other social platforms.
SlideShare lets you upload PowerPoints and other documents. It also works well with Facebook through a special app.
Ready to Work Smarter with Social Media?
Simple social media tools can make your business more effective and efficient. To learn how social media can help you grow, contact a Houston social media marketing company today.
Have a question about social media marketing? Leave a comment below or email po@directoryone.com. I will answer it in an upcoming post. You can also call Directory One at 713.465.0051.
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