In our times, it easy to watch things go in and our of style from one day to the next.
Weather its the next fashion fad or the next technology tool, our culture is overwhelmed with all sorts of things that are all forgotten in the matter of a moment.  NOT THE CASE with SOCIAL MEDIA.  That very term in fact may be news to you but there is one thing for certain, THIS IS NO FAD!  This week, we will take you through some SIMPLE STEPS to get involved and setup onto SOCIAL MEDIA.

WHAT is a SOCIAL MEDIA? The best way to think of social media is as a conversation. People are already online, on these sites, having conversations about everything imaginable. I would encourage you to take the STEPS to START the CONVERSATION with your customers.  You will find out shortly that it will LEAD you to CONVERSATIONS and BUSINESS you were never thought possible.  That is the power of social media. That is why your job as a small business owner today is to become part of the conversation.

STEP #1: GET IN THE GAME. There are scores of social media sites out there, but the big three are Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. Each does something a little different.

• Twitter allows for short bursts, or tweets, of only a few sentences up to 140 characters. As such, it is great for having back and forth conversations with people and posting short nuggets of information. People who follow what you do on Twitter are your “followers.”
• Facebook allows for a more robust interaction by allowing businesses to create fan pages where they can post videos, articles and contests.
• LinkedIn allows you to link to all of the people you know on the site, create a network and then make connections to your network’s network to build a more vast network.

You begin by spending some time on each site and getting a feel for how they work and how you might participate.

STEP #2: ACCOUNT SETUP ('Don't worry...it's easy.") Create accounts at all three of the big social media sites. Be thorough and add enough information to make you and/or your business relevant and interesting. On LinkedIn, be sure to add all of your contacts. On Facebook, create a Fan page.