If you’re a small business, social media provides fantastic opportunities to promote what you do and really get your business noticed. No longer do the large corporations with huge marketing budgets call the shots. In fact being a small business using social media can actually be an advantage. It’s the personal touch that people buy into and as a small business owner your passion and enthusiasm for your business will shine through.

You may recall I posted before about my wedding last month and to be more specific, that we were incorporating Twitter into our day? Instead of going into vast details about the wedding, I’m going to tell you the story of how we achieved some fantastic exposure because of our use of Twitter.

Ravi, the Producer of ITV1 Daybreak is a regular Twitter user and I sent him a tweet in the early hours of our wedding day telling him of our plans. He was really excited by the idea and asked permission to feature our story on the programme which was due to air a few hours later. On Friday 8th April at 7.15am, Adrian Chiles and Christine Bleakley told their millions of viewers about our wedding and were cheering us on. They later sent us a congratulatory tweet too.

They weren’t the only celebrities to send us messages either. During the course of the day we received well wishes from Duncan Bannatyne, Al Murray, Eamonn Holmes and his Co-Host Charlotte, Martin ‘MoneySavingExpert’ Lewis and even The Subways tweeted us from the studios during a break from recording their new album!

@DuncanBannatyne: @wedding0804 have a great day. 08 April 2011 18:52:35 via ÜberSocial

@MartinLewisMSE: @wedding0804 Hope it’s a MoneySaving wedding! Wishing you a healthy, wealthy, joyous life together. Martin x 08 April 2011 18:54:51 via ÜberSocial

@billysubway:@wedding0804 Have a wonderful wedding day!I’m tweeting from the mixing studio to wish you both good luck Love The Subways! X 08 April 2011 18:54:26 via ÜberSocial

@ajhmurray: @Bill626 @wedding0804 GOOD LUCK! 08 April 2011 18:53:54 via ÜberSocial

@txTVRav: @wedding0804 pleasure. Have a fabulous day from Adrian, Christine and the team at #Daybreak. 08 April 2011 18:53:43 via ÜberSocial

@SkyCharlotte Please wish Veronica & Bill @wedding0804 good luck for their wedding – will be live on twitter 08 April 2011 18:53:24 via ÜberSocial

@EamonnHolmes: @wedding0804 Hello Veronica and Bill . Congratulations from Eamonn and Ruth 08 April 2011 19:04:38 via ÜberSocial

We have also received several enquiries from the media who want to feature the story. So far a national daily newspaper, a weekly county newspaper and a monthly publication aimed at Entrepreneurs have contacted us in addition to the Daybreak feature I have already mentioned!

Now think about this for a minute. Whilst the type of attention may not be exactly what you are hoping to achieve with your business, the amount of exposure has been pretty valuable for mine. If you want to buy a twenty second slot on Daybreak, how much would you expect to pay? £5k? £10k? I don’t actually know the answer but it is fair to say it won’t be cheap! Print media space isn’t cheap either. But our social media promotion was FREE! The resulting coverage was FREE!

All it takes is an exciting idea that prospects can buy into and will want to share with their friends and colleagues. No matter what business you run, you are sure to be able to find an interesting angle and if you use social media to share your story, the results could be beyond your wildest dreams!

And it won’t break the bank either!

The newlyweds