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Face the facts. If you sell a product or service to the under 45 crowd and you do not have a social media presence, you could be losing sales. This doesn’t mean that you have to be Tweeting every five minutes or texting your BFFs every hour. It means that you let your customers and potential customers know that you have a contemporary company and you are aware of contemporary issues. In other words, you and your business are not dinosaurs.
You can take baby steps. Do you have a web presence? You ask why a neighborhood dry cleaner would need a website. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy. It can be a home page and about us and that’s it. What your home page should tell your customers is what your specialties are. For instance, do you clean and preserve wedding gowns? This is a big deal! Just one new customer bringing in her gown can pay for the cost of having your web site designed.
One bride will have several attendants. When they walk down the aisle they will ask where their friend had her dress cleaned and preserved. You become the city’s expert on the preservation of gowns. Look at all the extra business! And you owe it to your website.
Once your website is up and running you will want to make sure it is connected to your Facebook and Twitter accounts. Do not worry that you have no idea what they are. The person you hire for your web site can explain it all to you. You do not have to do a thing except run your business.
You may ask where are you going to find the money to hire a professional to build all this for you. First, it is not that expensive. Put the word out that you are looking for someone and have applicants come to you for freelance work. Make them show you previous work and ask about sales at those companies. Call the companies yourself and ask if they have seen an increase in sales since they went live. They will tell you unless you call a competitor.
Once you have made the selection of your web master, he or she will give you a bid for the entire job. At this point you can look for a micro lender who may provide small business cash advances. You can get the small amount you need and under the terms that are most agreeable to you. Or perhaps you can tap into your small business line of credit. Companies like Biz2Credit can help you get funding at the best rates available.
Becoming a solid citizen in the 21st Century is a wonderful thing. You will be able to communicate about what’s new – even with college students.
This article was submitted by Mary Branca, she has a Bachelors of Journalism from the University of Georgia and spent 20 years in marketing management with national companies in the Southeast, Northeast and Midwest. She has combined her marketing experience with her passion for writing.
