You’ve set up a Facebook page, signed on with Twitter, and your LinkedIn profile is shining like the top of the Chrysler Building—now is the perfect time to fine-tune your company’s, or clients’, local social media marketing.

Follow these tips and tweaks to help maximize your small business’ presence in online-communities:

Google Places – Let’s assume you already have a Places page. You do, right? As the king of search, Google promotes their Places pages above almost all other results. To be listed among the top seven in local search, fill out the business description using as many appropriate keywords that make sense. This will help you jump up in the rankings, and hopefully be listed on the small Google Maps insert that shows up in results.

Facebook Image – Facebook Pages now have the same look as Profiles—a horizontal bar of five pictures across the top of the “wall”, and a larger profile pic, on the left side. Don’t let all that profile pic real estate go to waste; you can have an image that measures 180 pixels x 540 pixels—perfect for adding some quickly-seen text about your business, company and/or background.

Address & Phone Number – Search engines can’t read text embedded in an image, so if your address & 10-digit phone number are pictures instead of text, you’ll miss out on some local search. Publish both pieces of information (as text) on all your social media sites, and on each page of your website. This is an easy way to add geographic information that helps optimize your community presence.

Twitter Background – Craft your Twitter background image to be consistent with the look of your website or brand. You can find people on fiverr.com, who will do this for you for five dollars.

Links, Links and Links – Add links and/or icons for all your social media networks—incoming/outgoing links give search engines a reason to think you’re legit.

Use Hashtags – Hashtags are the words found in tweets that follow the pound sign (#). They help add context to what the writer is talking about. For instance, the fictitious, Rocky Mountain Dental Office, may want to create and promote the use of the hashtag: #mtnsmile. Anyone using this tag could be automatically entered into a contest—in this case, possibly a free teeth-whitening. Make up your own hashtag, and ask people to use it if they’re going to tweet about you or your business.

Mobile-worthy – More and more, people are using their phones to search for your products and services; make sure your site is mobile-friendly. Pull up your site on your own phone, see how good or bad it is, and then check with your webmaster about options for improvement.

Encourage Reviews – Whether it’s a sign near your cash register, or a couple sentences on your website, ask customers to post reviews on Yelp, Google Places, or other social outlets. This not only creates fresh content for search engines, but testimonials are some of the best advertising you can get…and they’re free!

These are just a handful of the countless little calibrations that help you or your clients operate better in the world of local social media marketing. If you have a special tweak or tip that works for you, share it in the comments.

There’s never been a more opportune time for companies to access low-cost (usually free) social marketing tools.

Increased Internet-connectivity and smartphone-use pushes the non-stop growth of Facebook, Yelp, Google Places, LinkedIn, Twitter and dozens of other social networks, providing local businesses a number of ways to reach, and interact with, customers in their neighborhood, city and region.

However, as consumer-relationship channels multiply, and contact becomes more of a give & take, many businesses fail to use this newer media in a…well…social manner.

Too Much Shop Talk

No one likes hanging out with someone who’s always talking about work, and the same goes for your company; people won’t want to be “friends” or “followers” of a brand that’s all about business.

While a strong marketing tool, using social media to only spout off deals and facts about your products and/or services can be a turn off.

Your first step is to craft a voice/persona for your company—one that people will want to connect with because it provides value.

Be An Active Voice in Social Media

You created multiple social media accounts so you could find new, local customers and talk with your current ones, right? So don’t just sit there, speak up!

It can be as simple as a funny comment, a re-tweet, a question asked of your followers, and, yes, sometimes a coupon. The key is to make the voice of your brand enjoyable to interact with.

Here are five tips for strengthening your social media persona:

- Respond to as many comments and answer as many questions as possible

- Share useful information, but don’t go overboard shooting off too many links and videos.

- If your brand has an interesting background, share it over time. People love a good story, and it will build rapport for your company.

- Although every customer interaction is a marketing opportunity, don’t make it obvious—just helping someone out, or answering a query scores you business brownie points.

- Occasionally share links/info/videos that have nothing to do with your industry, but that you think might be enjoyed. Whether it’s “Charlie Bit My Finger,” or LOLcats, people like to be entertained.

Relationships

It’s a growing, interconnected world out there, and it’s becoming more relationship-based by the nanosecond. It may seem counter-intuitive, but by taking some of the marketing out of your online interactions, the space left behind will be filled with customer-trust.

Shaping a quality voice for your brand or company, and using social media to share and give, helps you become a good neighbor and a stronger, local business.