The Single Most Powerful Use of Social Media for Small Business

If you’re looking for the single most powerful use of social media in your business follow this simple plan.

The single tactic

My tactic of choice is one of the easiest to employ, automate and orchestrate and it has noting to do with tweeting. It’s simply the act of plugging in and listening to what people that are important or potentially important to your business are doing and saying in all of the social networks they participate in. Understand though that I’m talking about very focused listening here, that’s why this is a high payoff activity.

That’s right, you can derive immense benefit through social media tools without actually doing much more than listening. The first tool of choice is Google Alerts because you can set up countless alerts and receive daily email digests for all. Of course you’ll want to add another free tool such as Social Mention because it will help you pick up things that Google Alerts misses. I simply put my Google Alerts into Google Reader so I read them when I want and I bookmark all my searches in Social Mention and add a Listening Folder to my Bookmark toolbar so I can refresh the results anytime I like. (You can also step up to some paid versions like Trackur and Social Report)

The focus

Of course the next step is to determine who and what you’re listening for. Of course you’ll want to set up alerts and bookmarks for your own brand, that’s just common sense, but there are three other groups that I suggest every small business start tuning in to.

Too many businesses miss this and end up trying to use social media just like any other old school advertising medium and wonder why people switch off.