Before the introduction of social media, small businesses often had trouble competing with larger companies and their deeper marketing pockets.

According to a recent Business Insider report, there are several social media tools that can help small businesses increase their profits and compete with bigger companies. HootSuite allows organizations to manage up to five social networks at a time for free.

WildFire is another useful social media tool. The platform lets small businesses offer discounts, promotions and contests through their social presence. According to the report, companies can also manage marketing campaign performance using Klout, which uses a unique algorithm to determine the effectiveness.

“For a small business, new and improved online marketing tools only makes it easier to increase your social media hustle and cash flow in a 24/7 universe,” said the Business Insider report.

Social media not only lets companies expand their brand, but also lower their costs. By establishing a presence on Facebook and Twitter, a local bar owner in Indiana reduced his marketing budget by $500,000, according to a FoxBusiness report.

Customer loyalty is key for any company and the introduction of social media has allowed consumers to follow their favorite businesses like never before.

According to a recent Small Business Trends report, if not properly used, social media marketing may actually harm small businesses. If a company promises their consumers special perks or promotions and do not deliver, it could be a detriment to customer loyalty.

“If someone called your store with a question, left you a message, and you never called them back, you’d understand why they might get angry and never return,” said Small Business Trends’ Lisa Barone. “You’d probably recognize that ignoring them wasn’t the way to build customer loyalty or increase satisfaction. Well, the same thing happens when you ignore them in social media.”

Barone also said that small businesses should avoid inconsistency, not responding to comments and sending out irrelevant social media messages that may seem like the company does not care about their consumers, according to Barone.

Although simple to use and launch in many respects, a crucial aspect of any successful social media marketing campaign is diligent planning from the beginning, according to a Forbes report.

Although some companies may not have a social media presence, experts believe the medium is an essential marketing tool, especially for small businesses.

According to a recent Noobpreneur.com report, social media marketing is considered an “essential” platform for small businesses. By using websites such as Facebook and Twitter, companies can broaden their brand awareness and interact with consumers on a greater level.

Social media is also useful for growing a small business and increasing their staff, the report said.

“Many online recruitment companies use live feeds on social media channels to advertise new vacancies to fans and followers, although a live job feed on your profile won’t be necessary for you (unless you’ve had a sudden growth spurt) you can still use social media to source a valuable new recruit,” said the report.

According to a recent Miami Herald report, there are several free tools that can help small businesses take advantage of social media. Polly.IM helps monitor customer responses and Timely.is allows companies determine when people are most active on social media websites and writes Tweets in advance to meet the demand.

With so many customers using social media, many consumers are turning to reader comments when deciding on a product or service.

According to a recent Boston Globe report, there are ways small businesses can turn these comments into customer testimonials to help boost sales. Companies are encouraged to offer a form that consumers can fill out to leave positive or negative feedback and sending email campaigns asking for reactions.

“Because it’s not promotional, customers will appreciate being asked to weigh in,” said the Boston Globe‘s Jason Keith. “Social media followers on Facebook or Twitter can also be ideal places to pull from, if those properties are something your business engages in.”

Keith also suggests that small businesses seek customer approval regarding their comments and use longer quotes for their testimonials. To maximize the power of customer feedback, companies can also create a tab or dedicated page of testimonials that offers consumers the chance to view the information.

Although negative feedback received through social media websites may be viewed as hurting a small business’ reputation, companies are still encouraged to respond through this medium to help solve the issues, according to Forbes contributing writer Pamela Springer.

Cbeyond SMB Expert Tips:
Even if not currently selling products online, businesses can leverage online payment programs for simpler interaction with customers – and to ensure they receive their money faster!

Reducing the expenses necessary for administration, printing and mailing invoices on paper can significantly boost the overall cash flow while reducing the manpower demands for such processes. Using off-the-shelf programs, such as PayPal or Google Checkout, can help businesses establish a customized merchant account solution for accepting and processing online payments.

Author, radio host and small business expert Mark Deo lists the critical elements businesses must consider when evaluating online payment technologies.

Cbeyond SMB Tip: With so many people using email on a daily basis, the opportunity for small businesses to target these consumers can be advantageous if the message is delivered properly.

Copywriter Robert Bly recently hosted a roundtable for StepByStepMarketing.com and offered certain tips for small businesses using an email marketing campaign. Bly said that for a strategy to be successful, the message must be useful, urgent, unique and ultra-specific.

According to StepByStep’s Diana Pohly, Bly said that companies offering a free whitepaper are better served to offer the service on a limited basis to increase the urgency. Bly also said the headline of the email should contain keywords that reveal what the whitepaper offers.

Bly added that businesses are encouraged to include words that make the subject material useful to the reader.

Bly told the roundtable that “the headline would pull a far bigger response if it were changed to something creative, like ‘Bring Your Competitors to Their Knees: Free White Paper’ or, ‘Traveling Well Is the Best Revenge: Free White paper,’” wrote Pohly. Cbeyond recently released a mobile productivity whitepaper entitled “Smartphones: So Much More than Angry Birds,” which can be downloaded here.

Although many small businesses are adopting a social media campaign, regional development director for Constant Contact Lanelle Henderson said email is still a prevalent platform to reach consumers because most have an email account, according to a recent MySouthWestGA.com report.

-Cbeyond Small Business Tips

Cbeyond SMB Tip: As the use of social media among small businesses continues to grow as a viable marketing option, companies may be overlooking social media policies that can foster greater success.

According to a recent Small Business Trends report, creating a social media policy is ideal for small businesses because it helps employees interact with customers and convey their marketing messages in a precise manner. Additionally, Cbeyond recommends using social media tools because of their low (or nonexistent) cost and their wide public use, which can build brand awareness while allowing for public interaction with customers and prospects alike.

The policy should address social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and corporate blogs, according to SMB Trends’ Ivan Walsh.

“Remember, you don’t have to create individual policies for each social media site,” said Walsh. “Instead you can create a master policy document and develop short chapters for each specific site. This makes it easier to manage the document and keep changes under control.”

Although establishing a social media presence can be an effective marketing strategy for small businesses, companies should take their time before implementing their campaign. According to a Forbes report, not having a proper strategy in place prior to utilizing social media marketing can lead to wasted time and resources.

-Cbeyond Small Business Tips

Cbeyond SMB Tip: Social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter have opened up new doors for small businesses to market their customers.

According to a recent Miami Herald report, there are several useful and free social media marketing tools that can help small businesses grow their online presence.

To find out how customers feel about their brand, Polly.IM monitors their responses and suggests which messages small businesses can send back, while Timely.is helps companies determine when people are most active on social media websites and writes Tweets in advance to reflect this development, writes the Herald‘s Tasha Cunningham.

“For the busy small business owner, this free tool is a must-have,” said Cunningham. “Roost allows you to create a single post and send it to your Facebook and Twitter pages at once.”

Cunningham added that another useful and free tool is CrowdBooster, which analyzes small businesses’ social media campaigns and determines how successful they are.

Although some small businesses may be hesitant to adopt a social media marketing campaign, ZDNet‘s Heather Clancy encourages companies to establish an online presence because 25 percent of all customers are active on the platform. Additionally, Cbeyond recommends that small businesses boost their social media presence because of the opportunities it provides for building brand awareness and for public interactions with customers and prospects alike.

-Cbeyond Small Business Tips

Cbeyond SMB Tip: Small businesses not only have to compete against large companies for consumer dollars, but other small businesses as well.

According to a recent Globe and Mail report, small businesses should expand their marketing reach by thinking outside of the box. For starters, companies are encouraged to devise a way to deliver more value for their products and services.

“Stories may seem fluffy at first, but we pay attention to good ones, especially those that motivate us to take action or inspire us to achieve or attain a greater result,” said the Globe and Mail‘s Ryan Caligiuri. “A story could be about a problem and how it got resolved using your product or about how a product or service was developed.”  Cbeyond recommends social media as one avenue of problem resolution, as it presents businesses with an opportunity to handle issues in the public eye, which can win people over to the business if done properly.

Other ways small businesses can market to stand out from the crowd include pushing normal products and services to the limit by developing something new. Companies can also change a particular aspect of their business, as well as examine how other industries market to their consumers, according to Caligiuri.

Whichever marketing path a small business takes, companies should make their message simple to understand and evoke a sense of passion for their product or service, according to a recent Business2Community report.

Cbeyond Small Business Tips

Cbeyond SMB Tip: Word of mouth has served many small businesses well in the past, but technology and access to social media now makes it possible for small businesses to market at an even greater level.

According to a recent Pasadena Star News report, small businesses should not be so fast to dismiss the marketing possibilities of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter.

“If you have a thousand fans, what is the cost to reach them?” said the news provider’s Chris Vigil. “The power to engage with your customer and build tight relationships is what a growing business needs. What better place to do it than online, on a site that we know they are all on?”

Vigil added that Facebook offers small businesses with a simplistic approach that allows them to track communication easily through its Insight platform. This can be used by companies to study trends and how consumers view content.

While social media is a great opportunity for small businesses to expand their marketing tactics, companies are encouraged to first identify what specific services and products they plan to promote. Once this is determined, they should adopt a strategy and establish a presence on Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube, according to a Forbes report.

-Cbeyond Small Business Tips