What's the best social media approach to gaining ground for a new business?

[just making it happen]

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[Jackie R]

there's no easy way, Just jump right in and type, type away, content is king there as well.

[sircarpediem]

More traffic, more income possibilities. Put an add on facebook and create a business profile. There are 200mil members. Thats a great start.... If Honda is doing it and they have had the number one selling car in its class for years I think you can learn something from that. Use facebook advertoising money and recognition to your advantage...

Good luck..

[Merrybubble838]

Dare I say... all. In fact, I've been working on this very thing for a business I'm launching in February. In fact, I would argue that social networks are the best thing to have happened to the small-business world because this form of communication is cheap and wonderfully targeted.

Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace and Twitter, among others, allow you to spread messages without spending a penny (except your time, and I'm not underplaying that). My suggestion is to start with the basics: Create a personal account on Facebook and then a fan page. Begin by testing such things as coupons, special offers for "friends", etc. You can do similar marketing on Twitter, targeting those who are following you. You'll find that each social network has its own culture: MySpace is great for music and the arts; LinkedIn is better for business services than products; Facebook requires some care and feeding to stand out in the clutter; Twitter can be very noisy. As you spend more time with them, you'll be able to test which services work best for you.

I find that one of the best ways to use any social network is for you to provide information to your followers or friends. Presumably, if you are starting a new business, you have some expertise in that area; help people understand different aspects of the industry or the service. For instance, if you are opening a muffler shop, you might create a blog (distributed across the social networks, of course) about car emissions, CAFE standards, costs of repairs at different stages, hot new cars, etc. Have fun with it, and you'll find that your potential friends and customers will engage with you.

One note: These take a bit of time to build properly, so start several months early, if possible.