Social media is all the rage right now. Everybody is on Facebook and Twitter, and many people are venturing into Pinterest and Google Plus and Tumblr and Wordpress. Everywhere you look, somebody is updating their status, tweeting their thoughts, pinning a page and blogging about it.
Social media may seem to business owners like the latest advertising tool, but it's about a great deal more than just posting about your latest sale or newest product. Using social media takes finesse and know-how, especially if you're a business. Here are a few tips on how businesses can make the most of social media:
n Talk with, not just at, your followers. The importance of having a dialogue with your customers applies in spades to social media. The average social media user doesn't want to be bombarded by advertisements all day — they are using social media to build relationships and a community, and in order to reach them, you have to engage on their level. So, instead of telling them about your product, ask a question about it.
Solicit their opinion. If someone responds, respond to their comment. Feature comments and questions from your followers and customers in your status updates. If they have a problem and post to your wall about it, solve the problem quickly and courteously. Pretty soon, they'll be seeing you not just as a business, but as a neighbor and friend, and that goes a long way to establishing brand loyalty.
- Be generous with your followers. Advertise follower-only deals, sales and coupons — things that are only available to people who like your Facebook page and follow your posts. Make sure that they are regular occurrences and are worth your customers' while. Pretty soon, your great deals will spread word-of-mouth from your loyal base and across the Internet, and you'll get to watch that number of “likes” and followers grow and grow.
- Be neighborly with other local businesses. Like the pages of other businesses in your town and region. Share their status updates that you think your customers would be interested in. Once you've established a reputation of give and take with them, you might be able to ask them to share your page with their followers in the hopes of getting a few more likes. Be willing to do the same. The more connections you can make, the more you will be seen as a vital community job creator and resource.
- Use social media to showcase how you've become an expert in your field. Running an ice cream shop? Post relevant articles from across the Internet on interesting new ice cream-making techniques and flavors, and try a few of your own. Got a nursery that you're trying to promote? Use your page to share local tips on the best time to plant annuals, what kinds of drought-resistant plants work best in your climate, and ask a local gardening expert to host a chat and answer questions on your page at a set time. In short, use the Internet to build up your social media site as a source of quality information on your field of expertise and prove to the community that you are a great resource for information. It will help to establish you as an authority figure, and people will then be more likely to seek out not just your products, but your know-how.
- Don't forget the multimedia. Because people learn and engage on the Internet in a variety of ways, make sure you aren't just giving them text to read. Take lots of pictures of your business, your employees and customers (with their permission, of course), and company events and post them freely on your social media sites. If you can, invest in an inexpensive video camera to take simple video that can be uploaded to Facebook or YouTube. Many smartphones even now have this capability, which can make life even easier for you. In short, give them not just the words to prove that you are the best at what you do, but also the image to help solidify that impression.
Although tackling social media can sometimes feel overwhelming, these tips should give you a good start on making yourself known in the world of Facebook and Twitter and feeling confident about it. Most of all, remember: The key to social media is the conversation. Keeping that give-and-take going makes good business sense all around.
Source: Gasstongazette
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