For many small business owners, ‘social media’ is still a bad word, something they don’t quite understand and hope to get around to someday.
In the meantime, three local social media experts say a business could be missing out on connections as well as sales.
Enter Social Media 101, a bootcamp of sorts to help small business owners understand and take advantage of social media tools such as blogging and Twitter.
“Using social media can actually be easy and really powerful once you get behind the how and why and when of it,” said organizer and Sproing Creative co-owner Heath Fletcher. “Those are the stumbling blocks we want to help people get over so they can get excited about building their brand and their following.”
Social Media 101, being held Nov. 17 at the Vernon branch of the Okanagan Regional Library is made up of three sessions. The first session, Social Media with a Purpose, presented by Fletcher, uncovers the value of using social media and steps to creating a social media strategy.
The second session, How to Blog for Your Business, is presented by Natalie Appleton, owner of Read Head Copywriting. How to Blog helps participants discover tips for coming up with topics as well as ways to make blog posts engaging and optimized for search engines.
“If your blog content is findable and enjoyable to read, that’s going to translate to more site traffic and probably sales,” said Appleton.
In the third session, Twitter 101, marketing consultant Keli Westgate explains all things Twitter – from ‘tweeting’ to finding followers as ways to promote your business.
“Your customers aren’t just local residents,” said Westgate. “There are people all over the world who are on social media and could come across your business, and become a customer.”
Register for one, two or all three sessions, which begin at 9 a.m., by visiting http://sproing.ca/social-media-101/.
