How to utilise social media to increase local web and/or foot traffic to your small business.
Getting started with social media
If you’re like most St Albans small business owners, your time is one of your most valuable assets. So without further adieu, we offer for you below a brief rundown of useful ways to boost your local traffic by putting social media to work for you:
- Blogs: Use Google, Google Blog Search, and WordPress to search for local blogs and become involved as a user. You may find it appropriate to leave your number or contact information on the site, or at least be vocal about your involvement in the area and how your business is relevant. Try to establish a relationship with local power-bloggers, and they may even find a legitimate reason to blog about your St Albans area business.
- Use Twitter: Twitter is no longer a fad, it’s a bona-fide microblogging tool that anyone can use to follow other businesses and members of the community.You can use Twitterlocal.net to find the “Twitterers” in your vicinity to dicover what’s happening in your community. It’s easy to pick up on several networking opportunities, business group lunches, informal get-togethers, and news flashes every day in whatever area you work in.
- Start up your own blog: You can easily establish your own blog on Blogspot or wordpress.com for free, or if you currently have a web site, you could also place your own WordPress blog on your web server for little or no cost. Begin by blogging about your field and the local community — you can use it as a tool to notify your customers or prospects of happenings in the area that you are hosting, sponsoring or participating in.
- Own your listings on Google Local, Yahoo! Local, MSN Maps, and Map Quest: Many potential customers are increasingly using these online services instead of those heavy, (not very dynamic) old phone books to find your business and if they can’t find your business, they’ll have no choice but to select another business that matches their needs.
Why deal with an impersonal London-based agency, when you can get social media consulting from St Albans Web Design so close to home in Hertfordshire? Contact us today.