Here are a few things I've learned about social media marketing for a small business:
1) Facebook is the easiest and best platform by far. However, you an expect your first couple posts to get great exposure among your followers, and then a big drop off. It appears they try to incentivize you to pay for exposure by manipulating the algo - several others online have observed this as well. The ability to target age, sex, and interests is very valuable.
2) Twitter has a ridiculously counter-intuitive UI. It can easily take you 1-2 hours to get a single campaign up and running! The best part of twitter ads is targeting people who follow a specific page: it's a ready-made demographic engine.
3) Linkedin is almost as complex as Twitter, but I think it's a hidden gem that is underutilized by pubs/restaurants. Particularly the ability to target employees of specific companies is fantastic. ROI is still to be determined...
4) Yelp is one of the most frustrating things in the world. It's very expensive, low ROI, and very hard to get them to transfer your business to you. It also has an algorithm that (for some mysterious reason) hides good recommendations but not bad ones, which can really damage your business. My suspicion is they drive up bad reviews to incentivize you to pay for a premium membership, which allows you to pin a good review to the top. I recommend this article for Yelp: http://marketingland.com/5-yelp-facts-business-owners-should-know-163054
5) Google My Business is just an awful UI. It's almost as bad as Twitter. But you absolutely have to focus here: google, and google maps, are the most important to your online presence. I'm still experimenting with AdWords and site analytics to see what kind of results you can get.
6) TripAdvisor is pretty solid. I haven't done any advertising here yet, but overall they've got the essentials.
1) Facebook is the easiest and best platform by far. However, you an expect your first couple posts to get great exposure among your followers, and then a big drop off. It appears they try to incentivize you to pay for exposure by manipulating the algo - several others online have observed this as well. The ability to target age, sex, and interests is very valuable.
2) Twitter has a ridiculously counter-intuitive UI. It can easily take you 1-2 hours to get a single campaign up and running! The best part of twitter ads is targeting people who follow a specific page: it's a ready-made demographic engine.
3) Linkedin is almost as complex as Twitter, but I think it's a hidden gem that is underutilized by pubs/restaurants. Particularly the ability to target employees of specific companies is fantastic. ROI is still to be determined...
4) Yelp is one of the most frustrating things in the world. It's very expensive, low ROI, and very hard to get them to transfer your business to you. It also has an algorithm that (for some mysterious reason) hides good recommendations but not bad ones, which can really damage your business. My suspicion is they drive up bad reviews to incentivize you to pay for a premium membership, which allows you to pin a good review to the top. I recommend this article for Yelp: http://marketingland.com/5-yelp-facts-business-owners-should-know-163054
5) Google My Business is just an awful UI. It's almost as bad as Twitter. But you absolutely have to focus here: google, and google maps, are the most important to your online presence. I'm still experimenting with AdWords and site analytics to see what kind of results you can get.
6) TripAdvisor is pretty solid. I haven't done any advertising here yet, but overall they've got the essentials.
