Top10Tips.co.uk considers the social networks a positive contribution to the SME community. We believe that social networking has quickly become a very useful tool for all aspects of small business and are keen to champion its benefits.

What is a Social Network?

A social network is a community based network that allows one to interact and connect with other people to build relationships in an online environment. New tools are continually being developed and you may recognise the following popular networks:

• Twitter: A micro-blogging site, great for feeding breadcrumbs to your followers on a daily basis. Search for tweets, listen in and follow. Connect through a conversation, re-tweet interesting things.
• LinkedIn: Professional profiles allowing individuals to connect through established networks. Groups can be set up and discussions facilitated around your brand or something that appeals to your target market.
• Facebook: A person to person network orientated around an individual personal identity and an obvious choice for a consumer orientated business. Facebook has more demographic data than it knows what to do with. You can target by age, location, relationship status and hobbies.
• Discussion forums: An online environment where topics can be discussed within a discussion forum. There are forums on nearly every niche topics under the sun! A good way to find ideas, ask people your problems or discuss relevant news and features.
• Blogs: A regular commentary on a subject maintained within a website for others to read. Blogs provide you with a window on the news, articles, viewpoints or how to guides that individuals produce. You can comment on other people’s blogs, which in turn allows people to find you.
• Digg: A place for people to discover and share content from anywhere on the web, allowing people to collectively determine the value of a piece of content through voting.

Why we are using Social Networks

Social networks fuel the creation of user generated content, which itself is based on popularity for quick fixes, short-term ideals and coupled with the explosion in investment on the web there is a lot of mis-direction where people are looking to earn quick easy money from pointless affiliations, selling intangibles and unquantifiables.

Our aim is to ensure UK small business owners are directed to information that is relevant, reliable and reputable to aid in decision making. Social Networks are great mechanisms for communication. They democratise knowledge and allow information to disseminate through the interconnected world. By collectively pulling together champions of SMEs, our aim is to communicate our message loud and clear.

Our goal is to promote best practice for SMEs

Our goal is to promote best practice for SMEs by engaging with our audience through social networks to promote relevant information for decision makers that is reputable and reliable in order to direct our own community towards sound unbiased information that is regulated by champions of the online SME community.

A simple vision

All of the people who are members of the project or who have interacted with the project will have found the project through a social network, making the project a true product of social networking.

Embracing Social Networking

To fully embrace social networking in true spirit this publication we will introduce social networking tools that demonstrate good use and best practice for SMEs.

Social Networking Etiquette

Now we’ve identified the key social networking tools, how should we behave on these sites? Whilst each individual network will have its own code of conduct there are some general rules:

1. Give and you shall receive Blatant, or even subtle advertising gets picked up straight away. You’ll get frowned upon in a discussion forum for advertising and people would stop following you on Twitter. Join the conversations, find topics you can answer, answer people’s Tweets for help, share good links and comment on good blogs. Once people believe in what you have to say they will trust you and want to do business with you.
2. Build relationships A lot of social media isnvt about push, push, push. It is about building proper business relationships with real people - some may become clients one day, some may become suppliers, others may become friends. Do what you would normally do when building a relationship.
3. Learn the language Twitter has re-tweets and follow Fridays blogs have tags, discussion forums have their own abbreviations, you can be dugg or stumbled upon. Learn the language for each of the platforms, use it and become a local.
4. Promote other people and businesses Use social media to promote people who have done a good job or who offer something unique. Tell your Twitter followers about a good meeting with a fellow twitterer, recommend people on discussion forums, digg good content you find. If you promote someone else they will look for a way to promote you.
5. Remember, you’re leaving your digital signature everywhere

When you press that submit button the content you have just produced is on the internet for the world to see (forever). Make sure it’s on brand, it’s clean, a permanent reflection of your identity and realise that it may never be erased. It may even be used against you.

Summary

This policy should act as an introduction to social media and provide a general etiquette. There is no substitute for actually doing it. A starting point may be to monitor these mediums, hear what people are saying, see what is popular, understand what causes debate and make a note of what gets ignored. Then do it, follow people, write blog content, digg stories and get involved in discussion forums. Always keep an eye on your objective which is to build relationships of value and remember to always give before asking to receive.

Credits:

1. The framework of this policy was provided by Alex Cohen of Xander Marketing following a connection through Twitter with Top10Tips. In the spirit of Social Networking, Alex was keen to demonstrate best practice to the project and deliver the first policy framework. For more information please visit: www.XanderMarketing.com