Social networking has opened up the world for entrepreneurs and small business owners. You can reach out online and have access to people thousands of miles away, in different countries and different time zones. Isn’t that awesome!

How’s your social networking working for you? Are you making headway and developing relationships and growing your business? Or are you struggling to understand how it all works?

For most businesses it’s made it faster and easier to do business. Plus, lots of people have made it a great tool for building relationships. Like any tool, though, you have to know how to use it well in order for it to perform for you.

Nowadays it seems that there are too many people who come across as uninteresting, too business focused or too distant and they turn their audience off.

These are the entrepreneurs who fall into relative obscurity while their competition builds thousands of followers. You have the ability to make social networking a powerful tool if you use it right. So you may be asking how do I do that?

First, when you’re online, don’t retreat into yourself. Don’t clam up and let self-doubt have a field day with you. This is what happens when that internal thought track tells you that you’re not interesting and that people don’t want to hear what you have to say. A positive mindset is a powerful tool!

Don’t sign up for social media and then stay behind the scenes. That defeats the purpose of having the accounts to begin with. Once you sign up with various social media sites, start to engage with people and let your personality shine through.

That’s how you build your audience, your mailing list and basically your business. Let people feel as if they know you, as if they have a peek inside your life. Share both personal and business stuff on social media.

Personal doesn’t mean that you have to get too personal. Remember to keep it light and on a positive note. I’ve seen people lose business because they voiced too many negative comments on a particular subject.  It’s okay to share things but like any other conversation you have but try and stay away from controversy unless that’s your online persona.

So what are some common topics that are OK to talk about? You can start conversations about foods that you like, about a movie you recently saw (I just saw Star Wars!) or a book that you read. Of course it depends on the social networking site you’re using. Some are better on personal topics like Facebook while others are going to not want to hear about your kids, like LinkedIn.

A great example is Pinterest. It’s a good platform for someone in the wedding or fitness niche. You can post pictures of weddings and wedding accessories. Or you can post workout gear, before and after shots, or pictures of workouts.

Facebook is good for niches that use videos or tutorials and you can create a group dedicated to that particular niche – such as Marketing. You can share information about products, how-to train videos, etc.

Google+ has a lot of tech people and professionals. It’s primarily male dominated. It’s not used by the baby boomer crowd as much. So this would be a good social media site for niches that are into information products and internet marketing.

When you post on social media, pay attention to which ones get the most interaction. If you post a video and then a picture, if one got more interaction and more views, then you know what the audience prefers. I’ve seen this with our clients and my own business.

The timing of your posts is important too. Don’t push any sales or information when there’s a national crisis going on. You’ll look insensitive. Likewise, you can use stats to tell you when your audience is most active on the social platform.

I hope you found this blog helpful. If you are having challenges in this area and could use help with your marketing reach out to me thru our contact form. Also, be sure to read my other blog posts or attend one my training webinars.

Wanda