Getting Started with Social Media: What Cafe Yumm Recommends

The experts as fast casual restaurant Cafe Yumm give us their advice for small businesses wanting to get started with social media. Kim S: If a small business said to you, I can only do one thing in social media, what would you tell them? And if they said what one thing should I do or how should I start?
Kelli M: Listen and monitor. So set up Google alerts with your business name. Set up something like socialmention.com is one I use a lot that searches across all social medias, so blogs, Twitter, Facebook, all of them. It pulls up videos. It pulls up photos. And just make sure you know if people are talking about your brand. If you’re listening and monitoring then you’ll be able to put out any fires that do come up. Or you’ll be able to connect with people who seem to have a strong interest in what you’re doing. So it could both show you new opportunities as well as be kind of insurance in case there’s some brand emergency. Also pay attention to who the influencers are in your markets. So what else should you be reading that’s related to your core philosophy and your values? Are there maybe a dozen blogs that you could pay attention to on a weekly basis that would just make sure that you’re in tune with the trends and the influencers in your industry. You do that for long enough you’ll figure out what to say because you’ll be able to see how other people are using social media tools to see how it will fit in with what you’re doing
. And so if you don't have time right now to start a blog or launch a Twitter account or have a Facebook fan page, but pay attention to how other people are using those things, you’ll kind of l earn by osmosis and be able to figure it out on your own.
And take six months, take a year if you need to because once you get into it you’ve got to do it right. You can’t do a blog post and then leave it. You’ve got to commit to it and make something that’s going to work. So start by listening and monitoring. Making sure you know people are talking about your brand and have some sense of how you can-- have some plan, how are you going to respond if necessary and start there.
Mark B: That’s certainly ties into some other things I was saying: you simply don’t know what people are saying about you. And, I think, as far as the one application that’s easiest is Twitter. There’s really nothing to it and you can filter and listen and watch and then start putting it out there as the one application. You probably said this in different words, but it’s really start working with people on the message and they work with you and they appreciate that that you’re there to craft that message. And then you’ll even have partners, engage in particular what do you call it, word of tweet? It’s the new mouth. Twitter mouth.
Kelli M: Word of beak, I think.
Mark B: Beak tweet.
Sterling L: Of your knowledge of other small businesses in the area, do you find that their use of social media is under utilized? Because that’s something that we found is that most people just don’t care.
Kelli M: Yes. I think they don’t know. Yes, I think it’s very under utilized.
Mark B: As I often say, you don’t know what you don’t know. And for some people it’s not comfortable for a variety of reasons. It’s just not what they do. Not what they do well. They don’t have the resources for it. So if they’re satisfied with what they’re doing then that’s where they leave it.

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