Social Media and Your Business
Social Media has redefined and extended the way we communicate with people, and in business, with our clients.
Social media fosters the human need for social interaction, using Internet- and web-based technologies to transform broadcast media monologues (one to many) into social media dialogues (many to many).
Businesses are using social media to nurture their relationship with their clients. Fresh information that adds value to your clients helps keep your customers connected.
See our Social Media Hands-On Training class for business professionals.
See our Social Media Dictionary to familiarize yourself with the social media lingo.
Do You Need to Incorporate Social Media Into Your Business Marketing Strategy?
To assess your needs, your answers to the following questions should help you make the determination for your business:
- Are your customers using social media?
- How will using social media technologies enhance your relationship and connection with your client base, and new customers?
- How will using social media reach a broader audience with your products and/or services?
What Is the Big Fuzz About Social Media?
3 huge reasons why you should care:
- Twitter has 6-10 million users and roughly 20 million unique visitors each month
- LinkedIn has 48 million members in over 200 countries
- Facebook has 400 million active users spending 6 billion minutes a day
Why Should You Consider Having a Blog Web Site?
4 huge reasons why you should consider having a blog for your business:
- We live in an internet-savvy society.
- Consumers today surf the internet for everything when making purchase decisions.
- Your customers are looking for information (helpful content).
- Your future customers are trying to find you!
Therefore, your website can no longer afford to be just a big “blah”, simply stating who you are, what you do, a few photos of your projects, and how to contact you. Those days are over!
With the popular spread of social media worldwide:
- You need to have an online conversational component as an extension of your business.
- You need a blog to facilitate the dialogue between you and your clients, and future customers.
Why Is a Blog Considered an Effective Customer Connection Tool?
8 important reasons why a blog is an effective customer connection tool:
- Provides a way to communicate with your customers and your prospects quickly and in an informal non-threatening way.
- Gives you the opportunity to write short articles and pieces of information that add value to your customers.
- Positions you as an expert in your field of business.
- Plants you in the minds of your customers and prospects as a resource for the solutions they want.
- Separates your website from being a big “blah” to a content-rich and informative site that offers fresh information that’s helpful to your market niche.
- Its what consumers are engaged in daily, so you can LISTEN to what they want, like or dislike, and observe how you can meet those demands.
- You want to have a presence where consumers are communicating regularly, so you can ENGAGE in conversations with them.
- You want to be a part of the party where the bees are, so you can PARTICIPATE in building relationships with with your customers and prospects.
Two Secrets of Successful Blogging
- Educate and inform your client base.
- Be authentic! Don’t copy and paste.
Twitter is a fairly new micro-blog platform. It is expected to grow up to 18 million users by the end of 2009. With over 6-10 million users and roughly 20 million unique visitors each month, and your opportunity to be part (and beneficiary) of the party, why not get in the ballgame?
You should consider Twitter because:
- With only under 140 characters that Twitter allows you to enter, you can stay connected with your client base.
- You can engage in conversations with your clients where they also give you feedback (positive or negative) on your products.
- Feedback received allows you to measure your customer service and product effectiveness to make improvements to your products and services.
- Your customers can praise your products and services, serving as your word-of-mouth advertisers.
You should consider being LinkedIn to:
- Build your network with other professionals.
- Build strategic business alliances to expand and reach a broader audience.
Your e-Newsletter or e-Zine
What is the point of having a blog and collecting emails from your clients and prospects if you don’t communicate with them on a regular basis? There are many businesses that make the mistake of not maintaining consistent communication with their clients and prospects.
You should consider having a regular e-Newsletter because:
- It helps you stay connected emotionally with your clients.
- It helps you retain your resourceful position in the minds of your clients.
- It is the most cost-effective way to keep engaged with your market niche without the added costs of printing and postage. (This is green!)
- It is the easiest way to keep them connected to your blog for fresh news, information, hot tips and guidance that are of interest to them.
As you can see, social media has totally transformed the way we communicate with customers today. How you use social media could help take your business to the next level.
Green building is a new concept that not many people understand. Using social media to reach out to your customers may seem like a difficult task. But, sometimes when you change the way you look at things, the things you look at also start to change.
When you begin to make changes in your business, that’s when you differentiate yourself from your competition.
Resources
Check out Starbucks Twitter chat
50 Ideas to Use Twitter for your Business
Tweetdeck to manage your Twitter account
Was This Information Helpful?
We love feedback! Let us know how this power tool helped you at contact@LivingGreenInstitute.com.
Comments
Got something to say?
You must be logged in to post a comment.