Todd Wilkins, executive vice-president of Orren Pickell Designers & Builders, uses a digital camera and an iPad to communicate with clients and fans on Facebook

You've heard it all before: If you're not using social-media tools to reach new customers, you should. So you're making friends on Facebook, you're trading Tweets on Twitter. It's fun—but are you building new business?

Social-media marketing is probably here to stay, but it's turning out to be a time-consuming game that doesn't yield instant results.

Social media can give your business more marketing mileage if you're willing to truly engage with the people you encounter along the way. It's a slow process. And your intentions are more transparent to your audience than you might think: People can smell a sales come-on from a mile away.

The key, it turns out, is to listen, add value and be responsive. So says Sima Dahl, president of Parlay Communications Ltd. in Chicago, who boasts more than 10,000 Twitter followers. Her advice: Make frequent “digital deposits” by replying to other people's Facebook updates and Tweets and passing on useful information, like job leads. In addition, she recommends responding to all direct messages and blog comments. “Then it really does become one to one,” she says.

Are you ready to put in that kind of time? Chances are, your competitors are doing it already. More tips on how to be a better social-media marketer:

Choose the right platform. “Twitter and Facebook may not be for every business,” says Shannon Smith, president of Chicago marketing firm Always Be Social. “Really think about who your target demographic is and do your homework to understand where they are.”

Free tools such as Google alerts and trending topics on Twitter (search.twitter.com) will show where people are discussing a business or matters related to it, and Facebook and LinkedIn provide abundant demographics information.

Todd Wilkins, executive vice-president of Orren Pickell Designers & Builders, a housing construction company in Lake Bluff, focuses his social-media efforts mainly on Facebook, which allows him to post photos of the architectural details of the company's projects. He's also found that Facebook users include a significant number of his target demographic, 32- to 58-year-old women, who are heavily involved in making decisions about home design.

Use social-media monitoring tools to see what people are saying about your business. “The minute you see someone was dissatisfied, you can respond to that person and try to fix it,” Ms. Smith says.

In April of last year, Ramon DeLeon, the operating partner of six local Domino's Pizza franchises, began using Monitter, a Twitter tool, to identify and respond to people commenting on a scandalous YouTube video that showed employees of a North Carolina Domino's misbehaving with pizza ingredients. As a result, he also discovered that one of his customers had complained about her pizza on Twitter. Mr. DeLeon responded to the complaint with an online video apology that became an Internet sensation.

Avoid making your content promotional. “Don't constantly say, 'We have a special going on.' Talking about topics around your business is more intriguing and may spark conversations elsewhere,” Ms. Smith says.

The consensus of social-media consultants is that a blog is the best vehicle for this kind of content, in part because a business's ranking in Google search results will increase the more people link to a post. A blog is “the most effective social-media tool you can use,” says Gini Dietrich, CEO of digital communications consultancy Arment Dietrich Inc. in Chicago and a regular contributor to “Enterprise City,” Crain's small-business blog. Links to blog posts also can be included on a company's Facebook wall and in its Tweets.

To create content quickly, businesses can repurpose white papers and marketing materials, hire freelance writers or make short videos of a company representative discussing business matters. Just make sure to add new blog posts at least two or three times a week. “Consistency is key,” Ms. Dietrich says. “If it's been a week since you posted something, people aren't going to come back.”

Don't try to respond to everybody and everything. “It is helpful to develop unique relationships by reading what people have to say and responding, but you aren't expected to have a unique relationship with every one of your fans or followers,” says Diane Rayfield, head of Harp Social, an Oakbrook Terrace-based social-media marketing agency, who has 14,000 followers on Twitter. It's OK, for example, to thank people en masse for re-Tweeting or posting comments on a company's Facebook wall.

She uses NutshellMail, a social network aggregation service, to organize and filter the messages she receives through Facebook and Twitter. Ms. Rayfield also recommends tools like Hootsuite and Ping.fm to schedule messages to be posted automatically to multiple social-media accounts.

Be prepared to spend time. “It's not something you can do just a little,” says Ms. Rayfield, who recommends committing at least a half-hour a day to social media.

Ms. Smith of Always Be Social believes that the more successful you are, the more time the whole thing will take. “If people are responding and engaging, you're doing it right,” she says. “It's what you want, and I don't know that there's any way around it.”

By: Kevin McKeough
© 2010 by Crain Communications Inc.

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