I would like to offer some advice and personal experience with social networking, if I might. I am a Southern Carolina style barbecue caterer in Atlanta, GA. I have a website, but decided it wasn't enough for me to use as a promotional tool moving forward in 2010. I also wanted to take orders online and begin selling branded merchandise, sauce and meat online (I dry seal the meat and ship product all over the country).
Once I realized I needed more, I engaged a web design and Internet Marketing firm to handle producing a new and improved website for me (which I'm happy to say is currently in production) as well as take on the task of providing me with monthly Internet Marketing services.
Part of what they do for me is to manage my social media marketing. I have learned quickly that a custom built and actively managed account on Facebook and Twitter can do wonders for my business. I can publish my promotions, specials and new offerings to "the masses" with no out of pocket expense. We are in the process of doing a new Facebook promotion to garner new followers in the area that will help expand the base even more.
Being active on the Internet and in social mediums is not about "who can see info" about you that might be bad (reference pictures of cousin Eddie in a speedo in the Bahamas), it's about staying connected with your core audience. People begin almost everything they do online these days and it is smart business for me as a business owner to stay in touch and in tune with what they're doing.
Our Internet Marketing firm is even helping us to produce new videos of our facilities, our cooking process, how to cook our dry-sealed products, our events, etc in an effort to market to the masses and show them what the experience of doing business with us is all about. They help us get found in search engines regarding the posts we make on Twitter and Facebook (now that Google is indexing such posts).
I challenge that the Internet is not an evil thing to be scared of, rather it is a marketplace and avenue to grow and expand your business.
This is just my $.02 worth. I will keep you guys posted on our social media accounts and our new website so that you can see how we're doing things. Once everything is up and running, I'll post more.
Regards,
Robertson Howard
LowCountry Barbecue
"Atlanta's only Southern Carolina style barbecue caterer for over 25 years"