Inc.com recently reported that 91 percent of Inc 500 companies are using social media in some form.


Not only are large corporations beginning to get social media, small businesses are as well. As a case in point, Austin, Texas, wedding and portrait photographer Dustin Meyer uses Facebook to effectively market his business.
For his wedding photography services, Meyer targets brides in the 22-35 age group and their mothers who have an upper-middle income range and a wedding budget of $25-50K. For senior portraits, he targets students whose parents have an annual income of $200K+.
Meyer uses Facebook to market both services, as the social network is an ideal match for his demographic and provides him opportunity to market directly to students and young adults.
"I use the birthday feature to email gift cards for portraits," says Meyer. "Once a student has their portrait done, I use Facebook to display their images as a portfolio." He also posts wedding and engagement photos in the form of video montages on his business page, along with personal comments about each couple and their wedding.
"The results have been nothing less than remarkable," says Meyer. "I would say that 75% of our students are introduced to us via Facebook, which in turn allows them to refer other students to us once they've done their portraits."
Meyer uses no direct mail or search advertising to market his business. "I would say that the majority of our sales are brought about by our exposure on Facebook," he says. "It allows people to instantaneously promote my business to everyone they know with barely any effort."
This post is the fourth installment in a series called Social Media Works for Small Business: I Have Proof (See Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3). It is also excerpted from my new book The Digital Handshake: Seven Proven Strategies to Grow Your Business Using Social Media.