North Augusta Today

Businesses looking to become more interactive with customers might use social networking sites to put them on a first-name basis with their clients.

North Augusta businesses got the ins and outs of using social networks like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, at the Greater North Augusta Chamber of Commerce's A.M. Connection on June 24.

Facebook, a site that offers profile pages, e-mail options and targeted advertising, is great for finding out the latest gossip on friends and family, but businesses can use the same tools to target audiences and get a better feel of customers needs.

Sites also offer a cheaper, non-traditional form of advertising.

"Facebook has a unique option for advertising called the social ad platform where advertisers can target age, gender, geographic audience," said Sarah Johnston, a local recruiter who regularly uses social networks for work. "It's also pay per performance."

Registration is free, but the main expenditure is time.

"You have to be involved," said Johnston. "People come to me and say 'I set up a page on LinkedIn and I'm not getting any business leads.' It's like going to a chamber meeting, you have to be active and give out business cards."

Johnston said she updates her Facebook status at least once a day so her company's impression is always in her network's mind.

Jeff Mastromonico, with the University of South Carolina Aiken, used Facebook last summer to create buzz about the college among incoming freshmen.

"Five hundred people joined in the first week," he said. "And our regular (USC Aiken) Facebook membership grew significantly. It's become the best way to communicate with students."

Last week's panel discussed that communication on the sites should be as open as possible so the maximum amount of feedback is available.

"We discussed blocking interacting as a way to regulate postings that may be inappropriate, but you wouldn't have feedback from the audience," Johnston said.

Twitter offers instant, succinct messages in less than 140 characters via a computer or phone. Facebook allows customers to post comments as well as chat in an instant messaging feature.

Chris Harrison, an Augusta web designer and panel participant, said the success on the sites, especially Twitter, will come if you're willing to take questions.

"If you're trying to drum up business, take order over Twitter," he said.

Johnston said a women's shop in Augusta is successful in bringing in customers by posting photos of new shipments and offering special deals via Facebook.

When joining, businesses are encouraged to do a zip code search for others in their area to get the word out that they're online.

"You want to follow people from the local area and get to know them," Harrison said. "It's more about becoming a part of the community."

Reach Julia Sellers at julia.sellers@northaugustatoday.com.

FOLLOW NORTH AUGUSTA

On Facebook
-North Augusta Family Y
-Brian Tucker with the Greater North Augusta Chamber of Commerce
-North Augusta recreation
-Gold's Gym
-North Augusta Cultural Arts Center
-Habitat for Humanity
-First Baptist Church of North Augusta
-TrueNorth Church
-North Augusta Church of Christ

On Twitter
-Greater North Augusta Chamber of Commerce - @NAChamber
-Nancy Carson Library - @NancyCarsonLib
-Communigraphics - @Communigraphics
-WAFJ (88.3) - @883WAFJ
-St. Bartholomew's Episcopal Church - @saintbarts
-Smartkids - @smartkids.sc
-Gold's Gym- @GoldsgymNA
-NoStar (the band)- @Nostarband
-TrueNorth Church - @truenorthchurch

Twitter.com: 7 million followers, up from 475,000 a year ago
Facebook.com: More than 150 million users world-wide with 250,000 people joining each day. More than 18 million between ages 25-54 are on the site.
LinkedIn : 14,000 connections available in the CSRA. Can view first, second and third party connections. The average user is age 41 and has an income of $109,000.
Source: Sarah Johnston, local recruiter