In a few short years, social media has an emerged as a vital marketing initiative for businesses of all sizes. Most of us know when a company is doing social media right. Netflix, for example, is one such company that has leveraged its “Netflix and Chill” campaign to reach its audience. As Adweek points out clearly in a blog post on companies that are using social media effectively, Netflix has a thorough understanding of its audience and incorporates video clips, questions, contests, and other engaging content to interact with its customers.

 

On a local level, most people in the Philadelphia metropolitan area have heard of Vetri and the restaurants under the Vetri family banner. Marc Vetri was asked about marketing to the millennial segment of his audience in Philly.com, and he was quick to discuss the importance of social media, which allows him to make new announcements about special events, create changes to the menu in real time, showcase new menu item images, and promote daily specials. He also said that the social media platform matters too, and can vary by audience, noting that Instagram produced much more RSVP messages for a recent event among this age group than Twitter or Facebook. If he had just marketed on Twitter, he may have not received such a positive response. This is advice any restaurant owner or small business manager could use to strengthen his or her relationship with customers and drive new traffic to the establishment.

 

Most likely, as a business owner, chances are you have dabbled into social media. You might have created a Facebook or Twitter profile or developed an ad to bring visitors back to your website, but are you really using your social media pages and third-party tools to effectively drive new business? If you have only started to look at social media to enhance your web presence or feel that you’re not fully engaging with customers, our next session in our Small and Family Business Training Series, “Using Social Media to Power Your Business,” is a perfect opportunity to optimize your social media strategies to better engage with customers.

 

Using Social Media to Power Your Business

 

Rutgers School of Business in Camden has partnered with Archer & Grenier to develop a series of training courses geared towards small and family business owners. The “Unlock Your Potential” training series continues to focus on key marketing and finance skills and strategies necessary for businesses to succeed, and the third course in the series centers on social media engagement, third-party tools that businesses can use to strengthen their social media presence, best practices for social media content, advertising on social media, and more.

 

Rutgers School of Business faculty and Archer & Grenier business experts will show that local businesses don’t need a Netflix-sized, or even Vetri-sized, budget to maximize social media engagement. They just need an understanding of the tools and strategies to leverage social media to improve lead generation and foster stronger brand recognition among consumers who are increasingly using social media to interact with their favorite companies. At the end of the course, small business owners and managers will have the foundation in place to use social media effectively and gain a real return on investment.

 

Join us on May 12, 2016 from 8:30am-11:30am at the Camden County Boathouse in Pennsauken, NJ for our “Using Social Media to Power Your Business” course. Business owners and managers who wish to attend the course can enroll in the single course for $45 or take advantage of discounted three-course package for $112.50 to facilitate business skills and deepen their understanding of other pertinent marketing and financial principles for small business ownership and management. We look to forward to seeing you next month at this exciting social media education event. For more information about the “Unlock Your Potential” training series, please visit http://familybusiness.rutgers.edu/.