By Emily A. Hay

Using social media marketing to grow your business requires ongoing learning and refining of best practices. In honor of 12/12/12, we’ve put together 12 social media quick tips. Enjoy!

1. Facebook – Are you a page admin? While the insights reports can be confusing and the weekly page update emails can make you see red, a metric to explore is “reach.” Per Facebook, “Reach measures the number of people who received impressions of a page post.”
2. Twitter – stumped on what to tweet but want to be sure your business is interacting on twitter? Get some “R&R!” Retweet and be sure to reply to people’s tweets.
3. Pinterest – No product? No problem! Service based businesses can also leverage Pinterest with some out-of-the-box thinking. Push your creativity when naming pinboards, think about how you can tell a story visually and remember, it shouldn’t only be about your business.
4. YouTube – A vlog (video blog) for your small business can be as easy to create as writing a blog post. Grab your handheld video camera or iPhone and say “action!”
5. LinkedIn – your company page is as important as your personal profile. Update your followers with helpful information by sharing content for your business on this professional social network.
6. Google+ – Since this network is by…well, Google, it certainly plays a role in search engine optimization. Be sure all elements of your page are leveraged to help your search. Quick tip: the “About” page allows you to embed hyperlinks back to your company website.
7. Yelp – Does your business have a brick and mortar location? Have you claimed your page? Be sure to…this is the first step towards learning when reviews are posted.
8. Instagram – don’t think a social media campaign stops with Facebook posts and tweets. Engage your audience via fun filtered photos! PS Don’t fret if your instagram photos no longer appear in actual tweets; you must now click the instagram photo link to view (as of 12/10/12).
9. Email Marketing – Let’s face it, we all experience inbox overload. Limit your Mailchimp/GetResponse/Constant Contact emails and make them worthwhile!
10. Blog – Think of your business’ blog as a powerful platform to share your expertise. You can give away really valuable info without compromising your potential to gain paying clients…we promise!
11. Website – simplify and declutter! Make your site easy on the eyes and quick to navigate to the info people need.
12. Myspace – keep an eye out for this one…they are revamping their image!

What other social media quick tips do you have on 12/12/12?

Social media can be used in many different ways to benefit your business. Want to learn more about how it can grow yours? We’d love to help!

Thanks for reading!

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