For local businesses who are attempting to avoid social media, or think it’s not necessary to keep up with the competition, they should definitely think again. In the 2012 Social Media Marketing Industry Report release earlier this month, 83% of the companies/marketers surveyed indicate that social media is important for their business. So if you’re not currently using social media to generate leads, boost online visibility, and boost search engine rankings, just know that your competition is, which means they’re getting the business you’re missing out on by not utilizing the power of social media.
To ensure you’re getting the most out of social media, whether you’re a newbie or you’re an experienced social media marketer, it’s always helpful to have a useful list of resources to refer to and pull from to generate ideas and keep up with trends in the marketplace. With that being said, we’ve compiled 10 must-have resources below to help with marketing local business.
Social Media is in and About Your Business: This post provided by Small Business Trends provides several useful links to resources and tips to support local businesses in effectively using social media.
Social Media Examiner: This site has a very useful blog that covers tips and resources for a variety of social media platforms, from Twitter to Facebook to LinkedIn and then some. They also sponsor the annual Social Media Marketing Industry Report that’s also a separate must-have resource provided next in this post.
2012 Social Media Marketing Industry Report: This is a very useful resource that provides a lot of data around how companies currently use social media, as well as results and ROI. It also provides projections for future use.
HubSpot: HubSpot offers a ton of free resources and information that focuses on social media reporting, analytics and use. I recommend all local business owners sign up for their free newsletter to receive frequent free reports and info on webinars and videos.
90+ Social Media Resources: Just as the name implies, this is a useful post to identify a variety of social media resources that can be helpful for marketing local business.
Defining Hashtags for Local Business: We find that many local business owners don’t quite understand what a hashtag is, which means they’re not clear on how to use them. This post helps to define the mysterious hashtag, as well as provide useful tips on how to make them work for your business.
Facebook Help Center: This is common sense to many, but it’s amazing how many forget to check out the Facebook Help Center to identify tools, tips, resources and other valuable information on how to make Facebook work for a business of any type.
Twitter Help Center: Similar to the Facebook Help Center, Twitter offers a lot of helpful information to optimize Twitter for the best results.
MarketingProfs: Marketing Professionals isn’t solely focused on social media, but much of their content and marketing surveys and webinars are. They can be a great resource for current analytics and research.
LinksAlpha: This blogging platform allows you to simultaneously blog to a number of blogging platforms, including WordPress, Blogger, Twitter, Facebook, and many more. Depending on the goal of your strategy, it can help streamline your blogging process to reach more people at once.
Jump on the social media bandwagon if you haven’t already, and keep these resources in your back pocket to help guide you along the way. Do you have additional resources to share? We’d love to read about them below!
22 Comments
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Amanda
April 23, 2012 at 3:04 pm
Some of these sites were completely new for me but I understand that they can be very helpful for business owners and can bring many benefits. I appreciate the fact that you mentioned all of them
Carol
April 23, 2012 at 4:29 pm
Very nice sites! I love it. it is really big help for me and to all readers of this post especially the newbies.
Azam
April 23, 2012 at 9:28 pm
I am on the way of learning and this is a complete chapter for me in the field of learning.Social media are very necessary to make a product viral.
Chris
April 23, 2012 at 11:11 pm
Thanks for sharing these sites with us. I didn`t even know half of them allthough I always read relevant blogs. Especially LinksAlpha looks promising to me, will give it a try today.
TracyAnn0312
April 24, 2012 at 3:13 pm
I am not familiar on some of the sites you indicate above. Twitter and Facebook are one of the best social media for every business matter and it can give you better result once you have an account in either of the two social media. However, be cautious in using it because others are taking advantages not only to business but also to personal matter. Thanks for sharing it and it is such a pleasure to be back here.
Shamim
April 24, 2012 at 5:24 pm
well not just for promoting your business locally these resources are important for promoting your business internationally as well
Nawaz
April 25, 2012 at 1:08 pm
Social media play vital role in online business promotion. On social media we can make our community and can make our product viral.
Bishwajeet
April 25, 2012 at 6:02 pm
Nice resources to have for any business
androsimar
April 25, 2012 at 7:11 pm
may youtube be categorized as social media? if so, it should be on top ten,,
Marci
April 26, 2012 at 12:01 am
Thanks for sharing, really enjoyed your site, I also think Twitter and Facebook are one of the best media for all business matters …
Jane
April 26, 2012 at 1:33 am
I haven’t heard about Hubspot before but it seems to be a nice portal, thanks for the inspiring review!
Easin
April 26, 2012 at 6:38 am
social media play a vital role of all kinds business development.Twitter and Facebook are one of the best social media for every business matter and it can give you better result once you have an account in either of the two social media.
Nishadha
April 26, 2012 at 9:46 am
From the ones mentioned there I highly recommend social media examiner, it has very detailed articles covering almost every area of social media. Will definitely check out some of the other ones mentioned in the post.
Brain
April 26, 2012 at 1:24 pm
I too believe social media marketing is must for every business online if they want to survive in this though competition. Social media not only seems to be effective but it even is one of the cost effective method of marketing your products. I use to market at Facebook and found very effective method of reaching your targeted audience if done properly.
Andrew Thompson
April 26, 2012 at 9:32 pm
I found this to be a very interesting post. I agree with most of your points, though I hadn’t heard anything about hubspot and hastags before. I would love to know more about them.
Thanks for sharing.
-Andrew
Sam
April 27, 2012 at 12:24 pm
I have no idea about these sites even though I read relevant blogs, Thanks for sharing these sites with us, Obviously Twitter and Facebook are one of the best media for all business and they are not only seems to be effective but cost effective method of marketing products.
Sohbet
April 29, 2012 at 2:33 am
Very good and interesting site with very good look and perfect information … I like it.
Melissa
May 2, 2012 at 6:50 pm
I must admit that this is an excellent collection of useful sites, for which I’m much grateful to you
Rita Dawson
May 3, 2012 at 6:26 am
Great post! Really interesting information about the social media resources! I bet many local business persons wouldn’t have an idea about these valuable resources.
Felicia Corrine
May 3, 2012 at 1:34 pm
Very cool blog. The social media is gaining prominence than ever before. Marketing through the social networking sites is comparatively very easy and you can reach a larger audience
jack
May 28, 2012 at 3:56 am
As local marketing continues to evolve and improve with the use of social media marketing, business leaders and marketers should adapt and pay close attention to our clients and where their desired social habits. For instance, are our clients mothers on Pinterest, business professionals on LinkedIn, technical folks on Twitter or younger adults on Facebook? We need to know and learn this over time in order to effectively market and communicate with our clients.
Jean-Philippe Maltais
January 1, 2013 at 2:41 pm
This is so true and I strongly agree with it and its idealistic way of helping getting your job out there.