Social Media 101 For Local Businesses: Share This Ebook

Social Media 101 For
Local Businesses
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www.mainstreethub.com
MAIN STREET HUB:
SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGEMENT FOR SMALL BUSINESSES
Main Street Hub specializes in the most important social websites for small businesses.
We’re experts at connecting with customers on Facebook, Yelp, Google, Twitter,
Foursquare and more. We’ll help you:
Protect your reputation:

By responding to all reviews and building long-term relationships
Grow your audience:

By optimizing your profiles and using targeted advertising to grow your fan
base locally
Engage and motivate your audience to buy:

By creating original, engaging content and offers that drive traffic
to your storefront
Track your results:

By providing a custom dashboard to track key metrics
watch the video:
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www.mainstreethub.com 2
SOCIAL MEDIA FACTS
Like it or not, customers are talking about you online. Even more are listening:
7 out of 10 consumers look online first for local business information2
80% of consumers say that they are more likely to try new things based on
friends’ suggestions made through social media2
81% of consumers say it’s important for businesses to respond to reviews1
51% of Facebook users and 64% of Twitter users are more likely to buy
products and services from businesses they ‘like’ or follow2
8 out of 10 consumers are likely to seek the opinions of others online before
buying goods or services4
And 64% of them have changed their minds because of those opinions5
Social media’s impact on revenue:
65% of business owners using social media agree that it helps them stay
engaged with current customers and 61% say they gained new customers3
A recent study found that a one star increase on Yelp corresponds with a 9%
increase in sales6
Sources:
1. Neilsonwire
2. Forrester Consulting
3. Crowdspring
4. Mashable: Chadwick Martin Bailey Research Firm Study
5. Time: Business
6. Yelp
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contents
Customer Review Websites … 5

Where customers compare you to your competition
Social Media Websites … 16

Engage and motivate your fan base
Check-In Websites … 23
Drive repeat business and spread word of mouth
Mobile Websites … 25
Is your business mobile?
Tracking Your Results ... 27

How to understand your return on investment
Common Mistakes … 29
And how to avoid them
Time and Resources … 32

You don’t need another full time job
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Customer review sites
Where customers compare you to your competition
join the conversation
Review websites basically let customers have a virtual conversation about you, but
you can listen, learn, and set the record straight. When you respond to reviews, you’re
reaching out to your target market, but those reviewers and their readers don’t feel like
you’re advertising. Through conversation, you’re building a relationship.
Now we’re talking. Once you join the conversation, you can:
Respond to feedback
Tailor your customer service to specific needs
Stay top of mind to encourage repeat visits
Cultivate relationships with your target market
Increase customer trust and brand loyalty
Got another agenda? These sites also help you:
Get new ideas for sale specials
Run promotions to entice customers to act now
Highlight specific services or products
Spread word of mouth through friend-to-friend recommendations
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The most important customer review sites
Are Yelp and Google+ Local. Yelp is the most downloaded customer review app and has
41 million monthly visitors. Google+ integrates with search and Google maps, making it
highly visible.
*Metrics as of August 2012
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Get the most out of Google+
By claiming your business page:
1. Create a Google Account
2. Find your business and select “Manage this page”
3. Choose “Edit my business information” and select “Continue”
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5. Enter your basic information
6. Add details including your location, hours of operation,

product details, promotions, photos and videos
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7. Choose how you’d like to be contacted to validate your listing and hit “Finish”
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Make Yelp work for you
By unlocking your business page.
1. Search for your

business
2. Click “Unlock
This Business Page”
3. Enter in your information

and select “Continue”
4. To verify your business

account, you will be given
a Pin, select “Call me Now”
and enter the pin when
prompted.
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Set up your Yelp page
This is your time to shine, so fill out as much business information as you can.
Customer Reviews
If you want to appear active and interested in your customers online, you should
respond to every review left about your business. A few tips:
Be polite and eager to please – people are watching
Overwhelm the negative with positive
Go the extra mile for “influencers” – people who have a large following
Four stars is average – go for five
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MAINTENANCE
Profile management is not a one-shot deal. Once you’re set up on Google+ and Yelp,
you need to constantly monitor each. We suggest you:
Check for new reviews daily
Respond to every review either publicly or privately
Update the “About Business” section as your business information changes
Give customers a reason to consider you the moment they’re looking to spend. How?
Run Promotions and Announcements
To target a specific type of clientele
To generate business during slow times
To advertise something you regularly offer
Hint: It’s a good idea to create a special promotion or announcement just for those
who find you through Google+ or Yelp. That way, you can track the business you get.
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WHY YOU SHOULD RESPOND TO POSITIVE REVIEWS
Your positive reviewers are your brand evangelists. Their comments convince others
to give you a shot. Take the time to thank them. Creating a relationship with these
fans encourages the spread of word of mouth about you and improves your online
reputation.
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WHY YOU SHOULD RESPOND TO NEGATIVE REVIEWS
Replying to unsavory comments can take the sting out of the review. When you take
action, you get a chance to offer your point of view. This may cause the disgruntled
customers to change their minds and their ratings. Since a one-star increase on Yelp
can correlate to a 5-9% increase in revenue, it’s worth a shot.
You won’t get every bad review changed, but your response may impress readers
enough to agree with you. In the very least, it shows that you are willing to acknowledge
and apologize to your unhappy campers.
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social media websites
Engage and motivate your fan base
What is FACEBOOK?
Facebook is the most popular social media platform today. If it were a country, it would
be the third largest country in the world.
Facebook creates a place where your fans can interact with your business. That
interaction is then shared with friends, which is really valuable. Since each Facebook
user has an average of 245 friends, friend-to-friend networks significantly impact the
exposure of your business.
Friend to friend network

Friend
Customer x245 Friend
Friend
Friend
Local Business Customer x245 Friend
Friend
Friend
Customer x245 Friend
Friend
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CREATING ENGAGING POSTs ON FACEBOOK
Want comments and ‘Likes’? You need to post something interesting first. Publishing
content that’s relevant to your fans is the best way to encourage them to take action.
We recommend posts that:
Promote your product, contest or giveaway
Have a pop culture base
Contain a question
Not every post will fall under all three categories, but your page should include a variety
of each if you want to create a buzz.
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USE FACEBOOK TO GROW, ENGAGE AND MOTIVATE FANS
This restaurants got several takers on this

Promote positive reviews by responding.
offer and 28 ‘likes’ on this post!
Look! A healthy and growing fan base.
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WHAT IS TWITTER?
Twitter connects millions of people to their friends and interests every day. Tweeters
share information with their followers, and follow others to keep up with the latest news.
Twitter is a powerful tool for businesses to gain insight on their customers’ likes, dislikes
and behavior.
Implementing a Twitter account means you’ll have access to:
More customer feedback
Direct and real-time interaction with followers
More opportunities to spread word of mouth
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USE TWITTER TO CREATE INTERACTIONS
Interacting with followers means that you can:
Give customers a pleasant surprise by saying thanks
Reach new people in real time
Communicate relevant business updates
Twitter also lets you:
Integrate your Facebook page and website
Integrate into offline marketing
Search keywords to connect with your customers when they are nearby and
ready to buy
Connecting with customers nearby
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twitter best practices
When creating your Twitter

handle
Use your business name
Ex: @elaserspa
Publish the same

types of posts as FB
But condensed into
140 characters
Tweet about
trending topics
And use hashtags
for brand promotion
Ex. #Zerona
A few notes about Twitter etiquette:
Post enough, but not too much (2-3 times a week)
Give credit for retweets
Follow back anyone who follows you
Mention buzz-words relevant to your business
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check-in websites
Drive repeat business and spread word of mouth
WHAT IS FOURSQUARE?
The ultimate location-based social networking app for mobile devices.
Customers can:
Check-in at your business and tell their friends (since Foursquare integrates
with Facebook and Twitter)
Claim deals and promotions
Leave tips and feedback for other patrons
Businesses can:
Run promotions based on check-ins
Offer loyalty programs for those who frequently check-in
*Metrics as of August 2012
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Mobile websites
Is your business mobile?
wHAt ARE MOBILE SITES?
A thumb-friendly version of your current website, designed specifically for mobile
devices.
Why are they important?
67% of users are more likely to buy from a mobile-friendly site
74% of people say they’re more likely to return to mobile-friendly sites in the
future
48% of users say they feel frustrated and annoyed when they get to a site
that’s not mobile-friendly
52% of users said that a bad mobile experience made them less likely to
engage with a company
What should they include?

Regular website
Mobile-friendly design and business information like
address and phone number
Positive customer reviews

Mobile-friendly
Relevant updates and client website
interactions
Links to your social media pages
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Tracking your results
How to understand your return on investment
Tracking your results
So you’ve setup your pages, created new and engaging content and replied to all of
your posts...now what?
By constantly tracking and monitoring your social media engagement, you can see if
what you’ve been doing is working.
What to look for: How to track your metrics: Why does it matter?
Are you growing your fan base? Monitor daily/weekly/monthly 51% of consumers are more
increase in fans, followers and likely to buy from a business after
check-ins. becoming fans of their Facebook
page. More fans = more customers.
Is the content you’re creating help- • Track comments, shares ‘Likes’ Engagement is everything! Not
ing spread word of mouth? and retweets of your content. only are people who engage more
• Look at the amount of people likely to visit your business, their
who saw your posts (broken out engagement spreads word of mouth
by ‘organic’ and ‘viral’). about your business to their friends.
• For a broader metric, look at
your ‘people talking about this’
(PTAT) number.
Monitor the traffic to your

Is your business being found online Today’s consumer looks online
Yelp and Google+ listings. By
first before making a purchasing
optimizing and maintaining
decision. If your online traffic is
your profiles, you should see
increasing, it’s very likely your in
a steady increase in traffic to
store traffic will do the same.
your profiles over time.
Let’s cut to the chase, are you • Ask your customers how they It’s great to hear directly from your
getting more customers? heard about you and keep track customers that they’re finding you
of the different channels. on social media, but be sure to stay
• Create special offers that are on top of all of your metrics for a
specific to your social media complete look at performance.
sites and measure redemption
rate.
This is great, but how do I track all of these things?
It can seem a little overwhelming to track all of these metrics. At Main Street Hub, we
provide our clients a centralized dashboard to track all of their social media metrics. If
you are going to ‘DIY’, each website typically provides a reporting interface that helps
you track the metrics above.
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common mistakes
And how to avoid them
COMMON MISTAKES ON CUSTOMER REVIEW WEBSITES
Some blunders to avoid:
Not responding to reviews
Responding to reviews in a defensive manner
Leaving out important business information, or not mentioning the entire scope
of your services
Accidental typos and grammatical errors on your profile
Not removing outdated promotions
Not responding to reviews
Responding to reviews in a
defensive manner
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COMMON MISTAKES ON FACEBOOK & TWITTER
Some typical gaffes we see:
Having a FB “profile” and not a “business page”
Not posting often enough
Lacking content relevant to your followers
Putting out one-way posts that don’t spur interaction
Posting too often or spamming
Posting too often or spamming
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time and resources
You don’t need another full time job
TIME IS MONEY. SO HOW MUCH DOES
SOCIAL MEDIA COST?
Lets assume you’ll have to pay someone for 50-75 hours a month.
What are your labor options?
50-75+ hours per month on average to make social media effective & profitable.
No training or expertise:
Recent college grad $10/hour $500-750/month
Receptionist or another $7/hour $350-525/month

employee
Experienced:
Independent consultant $20-100/hour $1,000-7,500/month
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Let us do it for you
Our full service ‘do it for you’ social media solution puts you in the driver’s
seat, while we work to:
Protect your reputation

We monitor the most important review and social media web-
sites 24/7 and respond appropriately to all customer reviews
and messages, while they’re fresh.
Grow your audience

We optimize your profiles, use highly targeted advertising, and
cross-promote your business across multiple social media web-
sites to get fans and followers who are ready to buy.
Motivate your audience to buy

We create original, engaging content, craft special offers, and
start real time conversations that drive traffic to your storefront.
Track your results

We provide you with a personalized dashboard where you can
track all of your key metrics and see everything being said
about your business online – all in one place.
Call us for a free social media assessment:

888.900.0920
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What we’ll do
Build and optimize your profiles on popular social media websites
Reply to positive reviews to build-long term relationships
Reply promptly to negative reviews to control damage
Design offers and promotions to spread the word about your business
Maximize exposure by cross-promoting your business across multiple social

media websites
Promote customer loyalty programs to grow your business
Get more customers from your competitors
What you’ll get:

A better online reputation, more exposure, and more customers.
Client Dashboard Preview
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We get results.
Here’s Proof.
Typical Client Results After 90 Days After 180 Days
Increase in monthly Yelp Traffic 43% 61%
Increase in Facebook Fans 259% 330%
Increase in Facebook Word of Mouth 353% 610%
Increase in Twitter Followers 266% 500%
Increase in monthly Foursquare Check-ins 191% 244%
Commitment-phobe?
No problem, we don’t require a long-term contract. We partner with our clients for 90
days. After that, we work on a month-to-month basis.
Read what our clients are saying:

The price of Main Street Hub is affordable, and has brought results. We
have seen increases in traffic and sales since we started with Main Street
Hub. I do not have to learn Facebook and Twitter. I can work on running
CorAzoN, organizing the Store, finding new products and artists, and
developing the staff. These are things I am good at, while Main Street Hub
handles the rest.
Susan Zdon
Corazon, Minneapolis, MN
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CONTACT US
Contact us for a free assessment today:
Call: 888.900.0920
Email: sales@mainstreethub.com
Partner Program:
Call: 888.457.6821
Email: partners@mainstreethub.com
Connect with us:

www.mainstreethub.com
www.facebook.com/mainstreethub
Twitter: @MainStreetHub
Watch a client testimonial:
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Social Media 101 For

Share this eBook

Protect your reputation:

Grow your audience:

Engage and motivate your audience to buy:

Track your results:

watch the video:

Share this eBook

7 out of 10 consumers look online first for local business information2

81% of consumers say it’s important for businesses to respond to reviews1

Social media’s impact on revenue:

Share this eBook

Customer Review Websites … 5

Social Media Websites … 16

Tracking Your Results ... 27

Time and Resources … 32

Share this eBook

Tailor your customer service to specific needs

Stay top of mind to encourage repeat visits

Cultivate relationships with your target market

Increase customer trust and brand loyalty

Got another agenda? These sites also help you:

Get new ideas for sale specials

Run promotions to entice customers to act now

Highlight specific services or products

Spread word of mouth through friend-to-friend recommendations

Share this eBook

*Metrics as of August 2012

Share this eBook

1. Create a Google Account

2. Find your business and select “Manage this page”

3. Choose “Edit my business information” and select “Continue”

Share this eBook

6. Add details including your location, hours of operation,

Share this eBook

Share this eBook

1. Search for your

3. Enter in your information

4. To verify your business

Share this eBook

Be polite and eager to please – people are watching

Overwhelm the negative with positive

Four stars is average – go for five

Share this eBook

Check for new reviews daily

Respond to every review either publicly or privately

Update the “About Business” section as your business information changes

Run Promotions and Announcements

To target a specific type of clientele

To generate business during slow times

To advertise something you regularly offer

Share this eBook

Share this eBook

Share this eBook

Friend to friend network

We recommend posts that:

Promote your product, contest or giveaway

Have a pop culture base

Share this eBook

This restaurants got several takers on this

Look! A healthy and growing fan base.

Share this eBook

Implementing a Twitter account means you’ll have access to: