{"id":453,"date":"2012-12-26T17:29:18","date_gmt":"2012-12-26T17:29:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/?p=453"},"modified":"2012-12-26T17:29:18","modified_gmt":"2012-12-26T17:29:18","slug":"is-2013-the-year-your-small-business-gets-serious-about-social","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/is-2013-the-year-your-small-business-gets-serious-about-social\/","title":{"rendered":"Is 2013 the year your small business gets serious about social?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/blog\/2012\/06\/13\/many-companies-arent-measuring-their-social-media-are-you\/social-media-poster\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-200\"><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-200\" alt=\"Social Media Poster\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/social-media-300x196.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"196\" \/><\/a>We are about to usher in another New Year and in keeping with tradition, another round of predictions. Here\u2019s one theme &#8212; 2013 is the year that small to midsize businesses get \u201cserious about social.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>If you are already well along on your social media initiative, this\u00a0 may come as\u00a0 a surprise. In fact, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.smb-gr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/pdfs\/2013_SMB_Predictions.pdf\">according to the SMB Group<\/a>, the percentage of small businesses that use social in their businesses has jumped from 53 percent in 2011 to 58 percent this year. However, the research firm indicates of these, only 28 percent are using social strategically; the majority take a more informal or \u2018ad hoc\u2019 approach.<\/p>\n<p>Moving your social media activities from ad hoc to strategic is going to require more of an investment of your time. Posting on <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/blog\/2012\/07\/17\/get-the-most-out-of-your-business-facebook-page\/\">Facebook<\/a> and<a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/blog\/2012\/12\/11\/how-to-make-sure-your-small-business-tweets-stand-out-from-the-crowd\/\"> Tweeting <\/a>helps to build and engage a following and gain visibility for your brand. Still to be most effective as a marketing tool, social media activity needs to integrate with your traditional marketing program. Think of social media as an extension of traditional marketing \u2013 not an effort unto itself.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Be clear on your goals<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>As you consider adding social media to your traditional marketing efforts, be clear on what you want to accomplish: drive sales, generate leads or persuade customers to switch to your brand are just some goals. You can\u2019t effectively add a social media component to your marketing without first establishing your overall objectives.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Create campaigns<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Think of campaigns when you are integrating social media into your traditional marketing. \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/barnraisersllc.com\/2012\/01\/case-studies-social-traditional-media-working\/\">12 case studies prove social and traditional media work better together\u201d<\/a> offers a number of excellent examples of social activities augmenting traditional media to boost marketing and sales. To boost business, H&amp;R Block used Facebook and Twitter to provide consumers with access to a tax professional in the weeks prior to April 15<sup>th<\/sup>. The company\u2019s \u201cGet it Right\u201d social media campaign garnered 1,500,000 unique visitors and answered 1,000,000 questions for a 15 percent lift in business over the prior year when there was no social media campaign.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Convey consistency<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Your social media marketing should convey the same messages as your traditional marketing. Even the look of the campaigns should be similar.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Develop metrics<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Hold your social media efforts to the same high standards you set for your traditional marketing efforts. Establish your measurements once you establish your goals. If boosting leads is your goal; measure the number of leads you got through your social media campaign.<\/p>\n<p>We said in our <a href=\"http:\/\/www.plantronics.com\/us\/cmpn\/big-trends\/big-trends.jsp\">\u201cBig Trends for Small Businesses\u201d<\/a> that social media was here to stay. Now more than ever, it\u2019s time to get serious about it, if you aren\u2019t already.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We are about to usher in another New Year and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[510],"tags":[637,580,450,584],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=453"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}