For the next in our series of case studies looking at how small businessesare using social media, we caught up with Sarah Sharp, Director at Families Recommend Ltd.
In no more than 50 words explain what your business is.
Familiesrecommend.co.uk is an online resource for families to share their experiences of great activities, events, products and services. It’s for discerning families who want to find new things to try or to read about what others really think about a particular product or service.
How do you use social media as a business?
We have a facebook page, a twitter page and a blog. When we recieve a new review for the site or we have some interesting news to share, we send a message both via twitter and facebook to those who are following us to let them know about the latest entry on the site. This is a great way for letting people know we have new content. The real benefit of social media for us is that it provides our followers with regular information about the site that they can choose to follow up or not follow up depending on their interest. It’s keeping our profile up but without being too direct. With our blog, we spend a little of our time just updating those who are interested in the workings and thinking behind the familiesrecommend website.
What are your business/marketing objectives for social media?
We plan to use both facebook and twitter (and anything else that comes along) to promote our website. We have found it a fantastic way of getting to people we would never get to normally. For example, Sarah Brown (wife of Gordon Brown) follows us on Twitter. When would you normally get the attention of the Prime Minister’s Wife?
Do you measure the success of your social media marketing? If so, how?
We tend to check out through our weekly analytics the source of our visitors and this gives us some indication of the numbers coming through via social media. We usually find that a proportion of website hits have come through social media and this is growing as our followers grow.
How does social media fit in with the other marketing your company does?
Social media is very important to the marketing of our site, as it is inexpensive and instant. Our other marketing strategies take longer to develop and plan and often take longer to see results. Social media allows us to test some of our ideas in the marketplace and get instant feedback and results.
Do you have plans to increase your use of social media in 2010?
We will continue to use social media for our business in the future as we can see the benefits of engaging with customers in a way we could never have done before.
What would be your top 3 tips for businesses looking to get involved in social media?
- Sometimes the key outlets of social media can seem unusual and difficult to understand. Stick with it – it works!.
- Embrace it! This is the way of the world now, and you can reach new audiences and market yourself in a new way very easily.
- Sometimes it can take time to build a following within social media, don’t be disheartened, keep going and keep letting people know you are using social media via your normal communication channels (website, literature etc.)
Thanks! Don’t forget you can keep up with future case studies by following us or by subscribing to receive our updates via email. If you want to be featured yourself, then get in touch.
Loading ...