Round Peg Learning and Development

I am delighted to welcome Nicky Kriel as guest blogger this week. In this blog Nicky looks at 5 key reasons why Small Business’ should be using Social Media to get ahead of their competitors…..

Do you have enough business?  Do you want more customers?  Do you want to grow your business on without spending thousands of pounds? If you are a small business and you are not using LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter or Blogging, you are missing a great opportunity.  Social Media is fantastic way to build your reputation and foster relationships with other businesses and attract new customers.  Are you taking advantage of how powerful Social Media is for increasing your online visibility?

1.      It is free – For the first time ever, you can compete with big business in building up a presence on the web because you don’t need to spend money.  The only cost is your time.

2.      Efficient use of your time – now this may seem a strange reason because the reason most people give for not using social media is that they don’t have time.  Yes, it can be very addictive, but with focussed use of your time you have a great source of information, help and advice at your fingertips, for example I asked on Twitter for the top reason why small businesses should be using Social Media and within a few minutes, I had these replies.

3.      Community – Social Media is social and anyone who takes the time to engage with other people will find there are many supportive and helpful people out there.  The need for community is even greater now that so many people are working from home.

4.      Connections – Social Media allows you to network so much more time efficiently if you think about the average networking meeting is about two hours long and you have to add travel time to that and you are meeting a limited number of people.  The spectrum of people you can meet is phenomenal.  I have two radio interview based on tweets!

5.      Increase your visibility – If you can’t be found on the web, your business doesn’t exist.  You don’t want to be out of sight, out of mind, do you?  There have been a number of studies that have shown that the more people are exposed to something or someone, the more they like the thing or the person. Using Social media will increase your exposure and as long as you are coming across as a person who is a helpful and friendly, you will increase your likability. Remember people do business with people they like.

Why not get ahead of your competitors?  Most small businesses haven’t adopted social media yet.

Nicky Kriel is a Communication Coach who feels passionate about Social Media especially Twitter.  She runs Twitter Courses in Guildford and online and offers 1-2-1 Social Media Training to get your company up and running in Social Media.  She can be found at www.nickykriel.com or read her blog  www.nickykriel.com/blog