Everyone's a part of one social network or another and it's a great opportunity for your retail business as well. They're instantly updatable, completely customizable and easily accessible. The key to a successful social media campaign is figuring out which networks best suit your shop and customer culture.

Five Steps to Get Started:

• From the information below, decide on a select few social marketing networks and programs to focus on.
• Assign someone to manage your page(s). This point person should be proficient in social marketing, spelling and grammar, and be capable of providing a consistent and professional company voice. They will be responsible for keeping content fresh, evoking participation, sharing your information and creating professional responses to comments and inquiries.
• Create your page. Start with verifying the correct address, phone number, website and hours of operation. Add photos of your store, merchandise, staff and events. Keep it shop and community related.
• Build your network of fans/friends/followers. You can start by using site search tools to search for anyone you know who might already be on a network- friends, family, staff and customers (if you have a customer database, search for those names). Ask them to join and spread the word. Tell customers where they can find you and that you'll be sending exclusive offers and updates on new products and ask them to join your page.
• Create and follow a social media calendar that will make sure that content is timely, appropriate and valuable to your members. Consider using a social media aggregate tool like Tweetdeck or Hootsuite that arranges all. While posting promotions are a useful tool, people like to share and it will also increase your businesses visibility on the network. Ask questions about their favorite spots, music to ski/ride to, their opinions on current events and the like. Ask their opinion about a brand you might carry or which colorway they prefer on the luggage you have on sale.
  
   

Types of Social Media:

Social Networks

If you haven't heard of them by now, Social Networks are online communities that bring together users who have something in common. Three of the most popular social networks are Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Facebook is the world's largest social network and doesn't show signs of slowing down. Because of its strict content and security guidelines, partnerships with many other social, lifestyle and gaming applications and ease of communication, the site is a go-to virtual gathering place that appeals across all demographics. Facebook is a no-brainer for your business to connect with a broad range of consumers in a friendly environment. Applications like Facebook Places (mentioned below) and Facebook Ads allow for further development of a devoted and interactive community for your shop.

Offering you the opportunity to reach out to your network, called "followers" in its now-famous 140 characters or less, Twitter is a quickly growing "micro-blogging" site that allows you to share short messages or "tweets" in real time. Use twitter to re-post interesting info from local resorts, favorite athletes and the brand you carry, and to promote in-store activity and promotions. You can also sync your twitter feed to Facebook, so you can either auto-post your tweets to Facebook, or the other way around. Just pay attention to the length of the post – certain posts are better left to one network or the other. Where Facebook is king of interaction, twitter is great for sharing and passing info along.

LinkedIn is a professional social networking site that links individuals with similar career experience. In the snow sports industry, professionals are also consumers. While as a rule LinkedIn provides fewer means to communicate and social buy-in from its users, it's still a great tool for gathering and sharing insight about the industry and retail trends, technology and networking events.

Blogs

A blog is an online, real-time column or journal that you can create, update and monitor. Many social networking sites have blog features or you can create your own on your website. Since you create the content, it can be anything that you'd like. You can use blogs to talk about your shop, conditions at local resorts, your most recent trip to the mountain and to add personality to your store and give your customers a reason to visit your website. They also are great traffic-building tools to drive business to your online store.

Video Sharing Sites

Video Sharing Sites like Youtube and Vimeo allow users to post and view videos. You can use these sites to position your shop as the local snow sports expert. "How-to" videos about adjusting or waxing equipment, mini-infomercials that introduce your staff and their backgrounds and even snow reports are great ways to reach your audience through this channel. Be creative and have fun – these channels benefit greatly from the "social share" – when a user shares it with his network, they share it with theirs, and so on and so on.

Local Social Apps

Local social networks, used most prevalently as smartphone applications, or "apps" allow customers to search, locate, "check in" and even review your store. The most popular are foursquare, Yelp, Facebook Places, Citysearch and scvngr. These sites generally have both a web-based login that you can access from any computer. You can easily sign up and in to these programs and "claim" the official page for your shop's page. From there you can offer exclusive specials and customers can share tips and interact with each other.