Seven Highly Effective SMB Social Media Habits!

One of the most successful thoughts in past books I have written concerned “daily habits” for IT professionals (starting with my writing the MCSE Consulting Bible book and continuing through my SMB and Small Business Server books). This daily checklist describes best practices for keeping the SMB IT infrastructure happy each day. So I’ve taken this same paradigm to share with you my seven, highly effective SMB social media habits. These habits can be used by you to grow your SMB consulting practice or you can teach your customers to do the same to grow their respective businesses. Let’s get started.

When I start my Web browser in the morning, I have several launch pages, many of which are social media sites. I then perform actions on each Web site as part of my seven, highly effective social media habits.
 

Habit #1 LinkedIn Entries

In my travels, I have heard the oft-used phrase “English is the language of business.” (Thankfully, that is my native tongue.) I like to say that LinkedIn is the “language of business” when stacked up against other social media outlets. LinkedIn is where I start and finish my day. Over my first cup of coffee, I check LinkedIn for invitations and make my status update. I also try to make an entry into one of the several LinkedIn groups I belong to. These behaviors are displayed in the figures below.

Here is a sample of a daily entry on LinkedIn.

SMB Professionals Group is one of the groups I belong to on LinkedIn. On average, folks belong to several groups.

BEST PRACTICE: Go ahead and send me your LinkedIn invitation. I’d like to link up with you!


Habit #2: Blog entry

I like to joke that “I’m no Susan Bradley” when it comes to blogging and it’s true. Susan Bradley, aka SBS Diva, makes several blog entries per day. My goal is to make one blog entry per day. You might recall a past newsletter (see Issue 3-7 from April 15, 2009, here: http://smbnation.com/Publications/Newsletter/tabid/250/Default.aspx) and SMB PC magazine article (see 2Q2009 here: http://smbnation.com/Publications/Magazine/tabid/72/Default.aspx) where I wrote about using SMB SEO to maximize the effectiveness of your blog entries. But here I am more interested in having you make consistent blog entries.

I use WordPress as my main blog engine. Here is a daily entry.

Habit #3: Twitter

You might recall I have written extensively about Twitter over the summer in the e-mail newsletter (see numerous back issues). Properly managed, Twitter is a business tool. The key is consistency and content. Your tweets can occasionally be personal so readers know you’re human, but there needs to be bona fide content to keep your followers happy.

Here is a daily tweet!

BEST PRACTICE: Follow me on Twitter!

Habit #4: Facebook

An interesting trend in 2009 is the mindshare that Facebook has captured. Seems like you and I are now clamoring to hop aboard and tell everyone what’s on our mind. I try to relay good news, both personal and business, because Facebook is a happy place. I’ll leave the negative stuff to the traditional media to report on (just my opinion).

Here is a daily post on Facebook.

BEST PRACTICE: Wanna be friends up on Facebook? The choice is yours!

Habit #5: External Web site

Each day I try to make a post up to some external Web site to reach out to the broader community. There are many sites where you can add your comments. It might be in response to a blog entry at a site like MSP Mentor (tell ‘em harrybbb sent ya!). Or perhaps you have a particular affection for a hobbyist board. The point is to make an entry out in the ether somewhere. Your words will be working for you while you’re sleeping!

I participate on several external Web sites, including ComputerUser.

Habit #6: Forum boards

At SMB Nation, we maintain two forum boards, including active forums on SMB Nation and fireboard on Telephonation (www.telephonation.com). I endeavor to make entries each day to these boards, as seen below.

Meet the SMB Nation and Telephonation forum boards

BEST PRACTICE: You can join our forums (SMB Nation, Telephonation) and you might poke around for additional boards out there (Yahoo SBS newsgroups, etc.)

Habit #7: Just Do!

The “net-net” of this artsicle is to encourage the most successful habit of all in running a small business: repetition! Just follow the steps above to increase your visibility and good things will happen. Warning: Being successful with my seven, highly effective SMB social media habits does require work. The good news is that all of these techniques are FREE, so there is no excuse for not completing these procedures. You heard it here first!

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