13 Best Practices For Chilean PYMES

Mashable had such an amazing article this week about best practices for restaurants on Facebook that I thought to share it with Chilean Pymes, as it is right up their alley. This is probably one of the best articles on great uses of social media I have found that not only applies to restaurants, but to all small and medium businesses as well.

I tried my best to translate the article's main points, and I summed these up below. 

Mashable tenido un artículo increíble esta semana sobre las mejores prácticas para restaurantes en Facebook que había pensado compartirlo con Pymes de Chile. Este es probablemente uno de los mejores artículos de social media que he encontrado que no sólo se aplica a los restaurantes, sino a todas las pequeñas y medianas empresas también.

Hice mi mejor esfuerzo para traducir los puntos principales del artículo, y que resume estos a continuación.

Ser transparente - no borrar comentarios
Tienes que responder - gracias, etc
Educar a tus fans - como cocinar, como hacer las cosas que tu sabes hacer, etc. Un video de chef, educar sobre comida sana, organica, natural, etc
Muestra tus cosas - fotos fotos fotos!
No solo vendas - tienes que ser interesante! No ser solo promocional. Por ejemplo, usar video para el dia de las mamas de una torta, etc
Promociona cuando sales en articulos
Muestra tu inteligencia de social media - trata de estar en muchos medios de social media, y muestra todo esto en tu facebook o webpage
Ensena a tus trabajadores a usar social media, porque quieres ser consistente online y fuera de online. Por ejemplo, que tus meseros puedan contestar preguntas de si estas en facebook; tambien ambos lados tienen que decir las mismas cosas, etc
No dar mucho - en competencias o en descuentos en facebook, no descuentes mucho, porque clientes no van a quierer volver a pagar precios normales
Ser real en facebook - tienes que ser divertido, personable, real en facebook. No somos robots. Haz reir a tus clientes
Habla de tus trabajadores en Facebook - porque muchos de ellos ya estan en social media. Usalo para recompensarlos en una manera positiva
Tu twitter y Facebook no deben estar conectados - el nivel y tipo de comunicacion en las dos redes son muy diferentes
Usa Facebook ads!

PYMES & Social Media in Chile: A Primer

Ev-Social had the privilege to be named one of Start-Up Chile's 2011 award recipients, and we are beyond excited and ecstatic to kick off business in this beautiful part of the world.


One question we asked ourselves when arriving here in Chile was how the social media industry has grown out here - and specifically with small and medium businesses. Have Chilean PYMES (Pequena y mediana empresa, which are small and mid-sized businesses) begun to make good use of Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare and other forms of digital promotions?

Small businesses have already begun to utilize social media at full force back in the states. Even government agencies dedicated to small businesses now give social media primer courses for your local mom and pop shops. 


Chile is far ahead in the Facebook game, showing a 54.8% penetration thus far. So we were not surprised to see that many of the country's small and large businesses taking full advantage of these platforms. 

In Vina Del Mar and Santiago alone, it's hard to ignore the numerous billboards that feature the venerable Facebook and Twitter logo. 


During the student protests in Santiago, the Santiago Metro is using its Twitter feed to announce which lines will be affected by the protests.

The one thing we noted that was a bit lacking were the numbers - many twitter profiles had not yet broken into the 1,000 twitter followers, showing a need for a concerted and strategic campaign to get those numbers up.

 Buses are a major part of Chilean suburban life, particularly if you don't have a car (a large majority of Chileans  - especially young adults - do not own cars). Tur Bus is one of the major busing companies. They make great use of their twitter and FB page to promote deals and discounts.

 Amura Cafe in Vina Del Mar not only has the best ice cream in town, but they make full use of their cones to show off their social media savvy.

 LAN Chile, one of Chile's top airlines, which actually has a fantastic twitter program, which functions as a secondary form of customer service.