Dorchester Dorset.com Blog

Social Media

Whether you are part of the Social Media Tsunami or not there is no denying that these forms of group interactions are part of our daily lives.

It is fascinating to watch the way businesses are using these platforms to interact, acquire and nurture customers.

I believe most businesses (Not all) in Dorchester could benefit from having a social media presence.  Whether it is on Twitter, Facebook, social bookmarking sites, Flickr, Youtube or blogs.  Choosing the correct forum will greatly depend on who your customers are.

Twitter for small businesses in Dorchester

Take for example the darling of the social media world, at the moment, Twitter.

Dorchester businesses can easily use Twitter to reach and engage customers online.  Take our very own DorchesterBid Twitter page.  We are here 24 hours a day.  We tell the World what is going on in Dorchester and around the Town.  Those people out in Twitter Land, if they are interested can follow us and get regular updates (so far 196people) and in return we can follow them.

Twitter gives your business the opportunity to talk about your business or industry in a way that can engage with your potential customers. However, here is a warning.  Don’t fall into the trap of talking about the tiniest minutia of your office’ daily lives.  It’s too much detail no-one is really that interested.  And also keep the personal and the business talk separate.  “First coffee of the day” or even “off to  meeting”  is pretty dull stuff.  Avoid it.

Instead talk around your subject in a way that will be interesting to your targeted customer.

Here are a few Dorchester Twitter pages

1. http://twitter.com/Dorchesterlocal
2. http://twitter.com/D_O_R_C
3. http://twitter.com/TransitionDorch
4. http://twitter.com/DorchesterTown
5. http://twitter.com/FoodFromDorset
6. http://twitter.com/DorchesterTrust

If you are interested in finding out more here are a few Twitter resources:-

• Chris Brogan – 50 ideas for using Twitter for Business
• So Should a Business be on Twitter
• Twitter Tip sheet – setting up a Twitter account

Social Analytics

A final word about Twitter.  Track the popularity of the links you put onto the site.  Hootsuite or Bit.ly are excellent free online tools to help you monitor what works and what doesn’t.

Blogging

Twitter by its very nature means that you are limited to 147 characters, so you might not be able to convey everything you want to discuss.   For me Twitter and blogging go hand in hand.  One exists to support the other.  Here you can really delve deep into your subject.

The real beauty of blogging is that if you use the right software (we use Wordpress)  it is search engine friendly so it really helps push traffic to your website.

Manage expectations

Ok, so we are not all going to become Social Media celebrities like Stephen Fry.  You will not have a multi-million following of people waiting for who to wax lyrical about your chosen subject.  It will be  a slow following

Facebook for Dorchester Businesses

Facebook is another great social media site.  With over 500 million uses world wide it is rapidly become more popular than Google!  Large corporates use the site to great effect.  Here is an interesting link to some of the most interesting Facebook sites.

Youtube for Small Businesses.

YouTube, another incredibly popular site.  Despite it’s popularity it is surprises me how much businesses are not using this site to help promote their business.

Here is a video of the Skatejam in Dorchester back in April.

Dorchester as a town has an incredibly rich history is it ius much discussed online through all the forums I have just discussed.  Dorchester Businesses can use Social Media tools, like Twitter, Facebook and Youtube to promote their business and help generate extra sales.

Dorchester Businesses using Social Media

If you are a local business using the likes of Facebook, Twitter and Blogging let us know – we would love to follow you and extend our social network. So look out for us!

Social Bookmarks