• Survey of Rural Challenges
  • Small Town Speaker Becky McCray
  • Shop Local video
  • SaveYour.Town

Small Biz Survival

The small town and rural business resource

A row of small town shops
  • Front Page
  • Latest stories
  • About
  • Guided Tour
  • Subscribe
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
  • RSS

Take your social media marketing to a new level

By Becky McCray

You’ve experimented with social media. You’ve learned the tools. You know what you’re doing now, and you’re pretty comfortable. How can you take it to the next level?

A friend and I talked about this exact question this weekend, and I’m sharing the answer with you.

The Secret: Stop talking about you. Listen to them, and talk about what they want. 

Here’s the four step process:

  1. Define your customer. 
  2. Find out what they want to know. Note: you probably need to ask them, rather than guess. And remember they are interested in themselves. 
  3. Set up the keyword searches and subscriptions that will bring that info to you. 
  4. Plan how you’ll share that info through your all your channels: social media and networks, your paper communications and your paid advertising. 
Where do you fit in?   

Is there room to share your news, or important information from you? Sure! That fits in with the other stuff. Except now there will actually be customers listening and reading.

New to SmallBizSurvival.com? Take the Guided Tour. Like what you see? Get our updates.

  • About the Author
  • Latest by this Author
Becky McCray wearing long braids and a professional outfit smiles as she stands on a rural downtown street with twinkling lights in the background.
Becky McCray

Becky started Small Biz Survival in 2006 to share rural business and community building stories and ideas with other small town business people. She and her husband have a small cattle ranch and are lifelong entrepreneurs. Becky is an international speaker on small business and rural topics.

www.beckymccray.com
  • Want to Open a Cafe? Start With Wing Night Wednesdays
  • Small town marketing secret: Have something to invite people to
  • More experience-based retail: the Charm Bar, Valentine's Rose Bouquet Bar

July 19, 2011 Filed Under: entrepreneurship, marketing, social media

Wondering what is and is not allowed in the comments?
Or how to get a nifty photo beside your name?
Check our commenting policy.
Use your real name, not a business name.


Don't see the comment form?
Comments are automatically closed on older posts, but you can send me your comment via this contact form and I'll add it manually for you. Thanks!

Comments

  1. Darrell says

    July 19, 2011 at 4:42 pm

    My problem is finding my niche,so I can ask what they want and build a relationship.The relationship must come first.

  2. Dave Kemick says

    July 19, 2011 at 6:22 pm

    Excellent advice, I find that a lot of times when people start out on social media networks they use them as broadcast platforms when the discussion and interaction is what really counts!

  3. Ray says

    July 20, 2011 at 5:11 am

    In 2011, we all have to be looking at taking our work to the next level in Social Media… I think your tips are huge, and I hope it will get me to the next level.

Howdy!

Glad you dropped in to the rural and small town business blog, established in 2006.

We want you to feel at home, so please take our guided tour.

Meet our authors on the About page.

Have something to say? You can give us a holler on the contact form.

If you would like permission to re-use an article you've read here, please make a Reprint Request.

Want to search our past articles? Catch up with the latest stories? Browse through the categories? All the good stuff is on the Front Page.

Partners

We partner with campaigns and organizations that we think best benefit rural small businesses. Logo with "Shop Indie Local"Move Your Money, bank local, invest localMulticolor logo with text that says "Global Entrepreneurship Week"Save Your Town logotype

More of the best of Small Biz Survival

Copyright © 2026 Becky McCray
Front Page · Log in