Being Social Makes You More Accountable
In a day and age when many small business owners are trying to keep their heads above water in a challenging economy, turning to social media can prove very beneficial.
You might ask, just how can being on social media help my business? In fact, that is a good question to put out there, especially when you and your competitors are going after every single dollar available.
For starters, social media can be used both to promote your company, along with learning more about others, be it those you need to buy from or want to sell to.
Take something away from the following examples:
* Word on the street – Whether it was a good experience or a bad one, a customer you just serviced turns to their Facebook or Twitter page to discuss their experience with you. If it is good, you want to know about it so that you can try and duplicate the customer service effort that went into making it a positive experience. Should it be bad, you especially want to hear about it, looking to improve on the matter going forward, whether it is with that customer or another one. Social media is a great tool to know what is being said about you and your business;
* You need to shop too – All businesses undoubtedly end up becoming buyers along with being sellers. Whether you are shopping for office furniture, the best accounting software, security systems for your building or health insurance coverage for your employees, social media can be a great tool to turn to. Check out the respective vendors that you are thinking of purchasing from, looking to see if their customer service interactions on SM are relevant and timely. In the event they do not go out of their way to assist customers on social media, there is a good chance this is the kind of service (or lack thereof) that you will receive from them in person;
* Promotion does matter – If someone tells you that social media promotion doesn’t work, you might not want to take their suggestions on stocks to invest in. For those who do it the correct way, social media can be a valuable resource in promoting what your company does. While time and effort is required, the payout can be quite beneficial. With more and more consumers turning to social media these days to ask questions, look for resolutions to problems and share their shopping experiences, SM gives you a great opportunity to promote your products and services. To go about promoting the right way, don’t use social media to try and make sales all the time, but rather to assist consumers. Answer their questions, look to solve their shopping issues, and provide them with educational material (blog posts, links to videos and podcasts etc.) that will help them in making their decisions;
* No cost to me – Finally, keep in mind that social media is not going to cost you an arm and a leg like advertising, marketing and other forms of promotions will. If up until now your social media efforts have been next to nothing, change that going forward. Once you have pages for Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, LinkedIn etc. in place, make sure you or the person/persons tasked with overseeing them update the sites on a regular basis. You should also measure the analytics involved, seeing how many people follow you or respond to your shares, tweets, pins etc. Once you have built up a strong following, you should begin to see the networking opportunities expand, allowing you to help grow your business.
Social media does come with a price, mostly time and effort.
The question remains, are you committed to making the time and effort, meaning you hold yourself accountable for being more social?
Photo credit: guardian.co.uk
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