Ingredient: Social Media Profile/Page

Social media channels have become an increasingly significant element in marketing, and it’s worth considering whether to have a social media presence for yourself and/or your business. Social media networks such as Facebook or Google+ are designed to create a web of personal connections between you and your contacts. These virtual communities allow you to post your profile and access information others post about themselves. As a basic ingredient for filling the pipeline, a social media profile or page can enable you to be found more readily by prospects searching online. It can also give you an interactive platform for direct contact and follow-up, networking and referral building, and other marketing strategies.

You’ll find more about tactics for using social media throughout Part III of the book. But first you’ll need to determine whether a social media presence makes sense for you right now, and if so, where you should begin to build it.

Creating profiles for yourself or pages for your business on one or more social media services will often help you to be more easily found online by your prospects. People searching for a business like yours may search from within their favorite social media application, or your social media profile may rank higher in the search engines than your own website does. Some professionals use a social media profile as their online base (on LinkedIn, for example) instead of having a website at all.

Creating your own profile or page is also a necessary first step if you plan to become more active on social media, regularly posting updates and interacting with your network. But on some social media sites, you can simply create a profile to become more visible online without making a commitment to engage on a regular basis.

As of this writing, the major social media networks and media-sharing sites used by small business owners in North America are Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+, and for video, YouTube. There are many others used by specific regions, professions, or industries. To choose how active you want to be on social media and which services you might wish to use, consider these questions:

Do your ideal clients and/or referral sources spend much time online?

Do people typically look for a business like yours online, or does most of your business come by personal referral?

On what social media platforms do your clients and referral sources appear to be most active?

Can your business take advantage of the national or international reach of social media, or are all your clients located nearby?

Do you have the time and inclination to put effort into building an online network and interacting with your contacts?

Are you comfortable communicating through the written word or by video, or are you better at connecting with people by phone or in person?

For a nationwide business which attracts many of its clients online, and whose owner enjoys communicating in writing or by video and spending time online, social media marketing can be an excellent choice. For a local business which gets most of its clients through personal referrals, and whose owner prefers less time on the computer and likes to speak with people in person or by phone, social media marketing is probably not worth the time and effort.

If you would like to simply have a presence on a social media channel to increase your online visibility or access networking opportunities on an occasional basis, you can set up a profile for yourself on LinkedIn and/or Google+. Fill out your profile as completely as possible to increase the likelihood that prospective clients will find you, or that people who already know you will locate your profile and add you to their network.

To become active on social media regularly, in addition to a profile for yourself, you may also wish to have a page for your business or brand. It’s wise, though, to try out social media marketing for a while and see what results it produces for you before setting up multiple profiles and pages. For the twenty-eight days of the Get Clients Now! program, it is recommended that you set up no more than one new profile or page beyond what you had before. That way you can devote most of your attention to making use of any Daily Actions you chose that employ social media approaches.