Lesson: Social Media & Branding with Crystal Lee

Step #1 Necessity: Why do we need a social media account (or a few) for our businesses?

Social media is important because it is an online voice. It is another way to reach a demographic. At the end of the day, most people might not be interested in looking at your advertising, but they might be interested in seeing up to date blurbs about what your new product has to offer or they just want to stay interested. Social media is a good way and a free tool to access that type of data and information.

The people using social media should really be everybody. I personally think social media is incredibly valuable. If you're not using it you could really be missing out on a lot of great stuff. It's free, too, and at the end of the day it's one of those things where if you have a smartphone and you're lucky enough to be able to download apps, you should partake of this experience that's growing in our backyards, so to speak.

So I would recommend by first starting in Twitter and really thinking about what is your product, what is your brand. As soon as you figure out your product, figure out who your users are and go after and follow users who are like them. But before you follow anyone start tweeting so that there's a running layer of information that they can go back to, that they can refer to. The first thing someone does when they're followed by someone is go to their profile. So if you have interesting content that you think needs to be seen by that person, make sure it is your first 5, 6, 7 to 20 tweets because that's essentially free viewership. You follow them, they'll follow you they'll see it. Whether or not they act on it is another story because they live in a world where there is just a lot of information and every day that goes by, information grows exponentially.

So finding creative ways to stand out in a sea of information and in a sea of competitors is a challenge, but every day that you're not putting content on social media you're losing users, you're losing a chance to build your brand. So get on social media today. Get on it and clarify exactly what it is you want and follow the people who you want following you, and bit by bit by bit you can start to gain traction. I wouldn't hesitate to also consult with people who are good at social media because they can help you get started. You just need the ball rolling and once the ball gets rolling it's easier to sustain, and there are lots of independent consultants out there that can help get your digital media off the ground.

I might end up doing that one day because I enjoy it and I think it would be cool to help early stage companies gain traction in the digital space, but just really clarify. Think about your brand and if you're demographic is younger, get an Instagram right away. If your demographic is older, if you're a mom and pop business, if you're a small business, go get on Facebook because then people can check in when they come in and people can put the name of your business on Facebook. Instead of putting the name of your friend, you put the name of the business where you just had lunch. Create a Yelp page, do everything you can to reach the users that you want coming in through your door.

The worst thing is for your consumers to try to find you and for them not to be able to. You don't want to be in that position, so at least have a profile where in the description or in the bio you have information to a website or something where they can find out more. You live in a world where marketing is multi-faceted and you want to have as many open channels to your business as possible. Social media is one easy way to hit several, several, several mediums all at once.