_All you hear about is Twitter - and one of the most common questions I get from new clients is 'How Do I use Twitter' or 'what is it - and do I need to do it?' .

Let's deal with the second question first. Do you NEED to do it? No - but you also didn't need to get a website, or a phone number or business cards either - but it sure helps in establishing a business presence. Social media such as Twitter and Facebook are just new tools in reaching the community.

So let's set up a sample client with a fictional Twitter account.  They are a restaurant with fantastic meatball sandwiches - and they feature great lunch specials every day. In fact, their lunch trade makes up over 50% of their business.

So what are some of the ways Twitter could help this restaurant owner? Simply Tweeting a link to the restaurant menu is frankly not going to do much.  Tweeting should always be something meaningful and have the relevant hash tags associated so people who are monitoring Twitter looking for those same hash tags will see them.

I know - what is a hash tag? It is # followed by a key word that would help identify a place, product, store name or other search term. Since the restaurant is in Newmarket you might consider the following hash tags #Newmarket #York Region #Restaurant #meatball sandwich #Joe's Sandwich Shop . That sounds like a lot - and it will eat in to your total amount of characters (140) but it will start getting you into new followers.

(As an aside - I recommend using a Twitter program called Tweetdeck. It is free and can be downloaded at www.tweetdeck.com. It sits on your desktop and once you put relevant search terms will show Twitters coming from your area and these can be re-tweeted by your account with additional information.)

So you have put your tags in - now what are you going to say? If you have a special - or you are trying to lure in new customers - consider some kind of promotion for Twitter followers. Come into Joe's Sandwich Shop - today only for Twitter followers - $7.95 meatball sand. for just $5!

I am going to be honest when I say - Likely no one is going to come in after your first tweet, but if you start scheduling and staying consistent with your messaging people will start to notice and give you a try. Then you  build up a following by advertising your Twitter Account above the cash and on your website. Have a contest where people put their business cards in for a free lunch draw. It is a great way to get email addresses - to promote your website -  Twitter Account and weekly specials. 

We will do other case studies with the fictional Joe's Sandwich shop but your homework assignment is to get your Twitter account going - log in to TweetDeck and see what is happening out there. It is the digital equivalent of a CB Radio - and it takes some fine tuning to start hearing/seeing the information relevant to what your needs are.

If you have any questions or would like a free telephone assessment of your website - please drop me a line at doug@fourccommunciations.com

Thanks for reading - and next week - we will help out with more marketing ideas for Joe's Sandwich Shop!  See more of the Four C Communications website - go to www.fourccommunications.com

So much is written about the use of social media in reaching local customers but what does it all actually mean and how do you use it effectively?

The big duo in social media is Facebook and Twitter. But how do you parlay your personal Facebook account where you store your vacation picks - and make this an industry changing social media play?

First - you need a second Facebook account - with your business name, not your personal one. Second - fill it out with the base business info and categorize yourself properly. Then you want to create a page or Fan page. This is the address you will use when you link your Facebook logo on your website and is accessible by even people who are not registered with Facebook.

So - you can't use your vacation pictures so what are you putting on the page to make it compelling. Start with pictures of your business or service in action. People's comfort levels are extremely high when they can see the business up the street on Facebook. Showing your recent promotion, car wash or charity event will get you some social media juice.

So what is happening with the Twitter account at the same time? Your Twitter feed will be used to help drive traffic to both your Facebook postings and your website.

So post photos of your recent charity event - and then copy the link to the photo album and paste this into your Twitter feed with a brief description of the event. Most importantly - and underline and hit this with a yellow highlighter - use the relevant #hash tags.  What is critical about using these is it gets your tweet streaming into other people's feeds that are following similar topics. I use the Twitter App  - Tweetdeck - (free to download) and using the search terms I follow any tweets about Newmarket, York Region and local marketing and communications trends. By using the hash tag #Newmarket - hundreds of people who have that as one of their search terms for following local trends will now see your tweet.

So you do this - where is all the business. Slow down Chester - you need to build your audience and the people that follow you - and trust me - this could take a while. That doesn't mean it is not worth doing - but do not look at Twitter and Facebook as a quick solution to getting new customers. They are just a tool like newspaper advertising or buying a yellow pages ad. The upside is all it costs is sweat equity. The downside is like a garden - it requires constant attention, weeding, watering and looking out for pests. 

Explaining the metaphor a bit more - weeding-  finding relevant results on the Twitter Feed - in amongst all the spam, retweets - geographic confusions (Newmarket, England, New Zealand, Ireland all trend with Newmarket as a search term.) . Watering is putting relevant tweets up about your business or about the community. If you spot an announcement about the Santa Claus parade taking place at the weekend - you look like a good corporate citizen spreading the word about the parade. Re-Tweeting other people's local tweets can get you juice - but don't just parrot anything you see - it has to make sense. Finally weeding - eliminating the spammers from your life. If you follow a person from an interesting post but all their subsequent posts are irrelevant and spam like - un-follow that person.

Back to Facebook - make sure you are promoting your Facebook page (and Twitter account) on your website, any printed material and at your place of business. If you are a retailer - even have giveaways for people who Like your page - it is a way to get people to see your page - but more importantly it now has your Facebook posts showing up in their newsfeed. Then all that person's friends also see that information about your new sale that takes place this weekend. Get enough people doing this - and the relevance of social media starts to take shape.

There is a lot to cover but here is a great article form Brian Solis - with some tips on engaging a new audience.

http://www.briansolis.com/2010/05/21-tips-for-using-twitter-for-business/

Four C Communications provides complete social media integration along with good looking, simple to use websites. Drop us a line at doug@fourccommunications.com to have us audit your site and offer up some free changes.

Follow us on Twitter at @FourC_Comms and at Facebook http://www.facebook.com/pages/Four-C-Communications/260506260666788

Next week - using Facebook Ads to drive local business!

So the earth did not rumble with the enormity of the announcement that there is yet another internet/website building firm in York Region. Why did we create a company that seems to have plenty of competitors in place already?

A couple of reasons. The first - in a recent comscore study on local business search trends - 70 per cent of consumers go online first for local business information. In exploring the merits of Newmarket and area's nearly 9,000 businesses just over half of any type of web presence. A staggering 45 per cent do not - and that presents a great business opportunity. (http://smallbiztrends.com/2010/10/key-takeaways-from-the-2010-local-search-usage-study.html)


Second - while there may online - appear to be plenty of companies around to build websites - they are generally too expensive for most small businesses to engage them. Having built websites in a corporate environment I was blown away by the range of pricing available for the same service. Inevitably I would get around to asking why a company was worth all the extra cost and there rarely was an answer that didn't hover around 'experience, 24/7 coverage, top notch service'. 

Those are nice platitudes but when it comes to building a website - the raw materials are not titanium, wood and concrete (if they are you are using the wrong company). It all boils down to labour and what that company feels is a price the market can bear. When I hear small companies boast they only spent $5,000 on their website I wonder what the web company did with the $4,500 after they spent the actual $500 in labour really needed to build most simple websites.

Now don't get me wrong - if you are a big bank, go open that vault and spend the money. Millions of people are keeping their banking on your website and need the security and experience to keep their information safe. 

But a local restaurant, hardware store, tire shop or bistro does not need the firewalls, back up fail safe hard drives on a server farm near the arctic circle and a staff of ten on stand by in case there are problems.

What we are trying to achieve by being a local web company is help local businesses improve how they display themselves to potential customers. 

We will also be working with clients to help cheaply shoot photos or video of their businesses and also help incorporate important social media tools such as Twitter and Facebook. While most business owners can lay claim to having an account for both - how they are used and what audiences they are exposed to can have a huge impact on the goal of attracting new customers.

One of the new services we are introducing to the local real estate market is video tours of homes. Just as slideshows were ground breaking ways of displaying a house online fifteen years ago - now a well produced video with voice over is a much cleaner and transparent way of displaying a house for sale.

I will be making regular posts on my blogs using real examples from the Newmarket, Keswick and Aurora business community. Giving kudos to those who are doing a good job - and also pointing out where some companies are falling short reaching the local consumer.

If you would like me to provide a free audit for your website - drop me a line with a link - and I will take an unflinching look at what you have. Email me at doug@fourccommunications.com !

Next article - we will look at how to use Facebook for something other than looking at your embarrassing college pictures.