Interesting read in The Herald today with a column by Mhairi Clarke about her designer clothing business The Clothes Tree. It talks about how she’s had to learn things about digital engagement to boost her business online. There’s some good observations in it, so go have a read, but here’s some more tips for those like Mhairi trying to wade through the social media waters…

1. Don’t lose sleep over “is social media marketing, PR, customer engagement or sales?” It’s all of them.
2. Reach out to other like-minded tweeters via the likes of wefollow, twellow and twellowhood
3. In the case of The Clothes Tree make strong efforts with the likes of mummy and daddy bloggers (on their blogs, Twitter and Facebook), leave comments.
4. Make sure your blog link works. You don’t need to craft screeds of original material – but how about even a round-up of interesting – and relevant blog links you’ve seen that week? Make that your Friday update.
5. Another weekly update is to point out what the most popular/looked at items are each week – “10 most popular boy’s clothes” and so on.
6. It also screams Pinterest to me – pictures of clothing? Winner. And tie it into Facebook and Twitter networks.
7. Ensure all your social media efforts are on business cards, websites and so on.
8. Try and update your social networks at least once a day – and at the optimum time for each network.
9. If blogging regularly, try and have a theme for each day – and be consistent.
10. Go follow everyone on Twitter that your competition follows. Also monitor what’s said to them and see if there’s opportunities.
11. On Facebook, get ready to fill out the Timeline with information that will help people connect and empathise with you.
12. Tell your story. The Clothes Tree Twitter stream is full of people talking about Mhairi’s tale. Use that to your advantage (If you’re Mhairi – other people need to find their own story).
13. Don’t just talk about clothes. Feel free to reach out and talk about tangentially related items. Or staff.
14. Don’t go overboard in spending hours on this. For most small businesses, a strong and healthy social media presence can be built an hour a day (with check-ins at other points).
15. When getting others to reference you online, try and get them to link to you with your preferred SEO phrases and not just the name of your shop.