How to get social media working for your business... tips to share!

Most small business owners I know have a constant feeling of guilt that we could be doing more on social media to promote our businesses.

There is definitely always more to be done!

Just now, with HUGE disruption to our businesses because of corona and lockdown, this has perhaps become a really live issue again. How can we harness the power of social media to help us recover as quickly as possible?

I am a really late, S L O W adopter of social media. Something about the anonymous nature of it - broadcashing a message out regardless of whether someone is interested in receiving it - makes me feel super uncomfortable. I much prefer 1 to 1 email where I can have a conversation with one person. Although I quite like WhatsApp too … but that’s because people have deliberately chosen to ‘opt in’ to a group’s conversation (well, mostly - maybe sometime they can wish they hadn’t!).

But - my discomfort aside - as a business owner I know it’s really important to get to grips with these powerful platforms that can let you reach out to thousands of potential customers at very little cost.

Although I don’t naturally ‘like’ social media …. I DO naturally love a system. To get me through tasks I don’t like I have always used a list. To help me keep on top of less than favourite tasks in my business (bookeeping, electricity meter reading …) I use an SOP (standard operating proceedure - essentially a list in business form).

So in a determined effort to help me get to grips with social media for my business I have come up with an approach that is designed so I can get stuff done in 1 hour!

To help push me to get it all organised I’ve been challenged to see if I can run a workshop on it … so on 28th May I’m going to have a go.

So if you’re a small business owner who does their own social media, and would might find some suggestions on how to get it done helpful, please join me! It’d be nice to see you. The sign up is here: https://www.harlandworks.co.uk/social-media-workshop

As I am NOT that expert on all the different platforms (and actually, newsflash, I don’t think you have to be to get benefit from social media … but that’s something I’ll talk about later….) I’ve signed up to a Social Media Training Course run by the very lovely Tech Pixies. This will address any gaps I have and I am aiming to share platform specific suggestions I learn as I go on the blog, on the workshop and in my emails.

So, please sign up to my workshop and mailing list if you’re a small business owner who’d like some help getting your social media working harder for you!