Small Businesses and Social Media

Here is the quick Skinny!

​Facebook:

​Historically you could create a separate business account without linking it to your personally account. It appears that feature has since went away. Thus if you want to use Facebook for marketing you will have to create a business page from your personal account.

Pros:

• ​Market all your current Facebook friends
• ​relatively easy to set up
• ​Also there is a pages app that will allow you to manage all your accounts in one

Cons:

• ​If you don't have a Facebook personal account you are now forced to have one
• ​If you don't have a Facebook personal account, you don't have any Facebook Friends to market to and will need to pay to boost your adds (something you may end up doing anyway)

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LinkedIn:
​​Same with Facebook, I am not sure if they ever allowed you to create a business account without creating a personal account, but I can tell you that I searched for that option for several days and it either is not there or its hidden very well.

Twitter:
​ You do not need a personal account to create a company account with Twitter. You just need to create a unique Twitter handle. Twitter is a less complicated option however your words are limited on Twitter vs the other social media sites

Instagram:
​​Just like twitter you don't need a personal account and if you do have a personal account and you only want to manage one IG you can always convert you personal account to a Business Account, fairly easy! Also you can set this account up to do a simultaneous post to Twitter and Facebook, which sweetens this deal! This option is best tangible item sales.

Pinterest and YouTube:
​This is a really hot place to advertise. Everyone is on Pinterest and YouTube trying to learn something. Especially if you are doing small projects that you want to record I suggest heading over to YouTube and setting up a channel. If you are a retailer Pinterest is a wonderful place for you to be.