Social Media: Why You SHOULD Do It

Usually a marketing trend gets jumped on by everyone – if it’s new and it works – why not? Oddly enough, a lot of companies are still hesitant about trying social media. Some say it’s too “time consuming,” others feel it “won’t reach their market” effectively and others just don’t see what “all the social media fuss” is about, and don’t have the time to figure it all out…

Ironically, the real-life responses to the objections outlined above are pretty simple. When done right, social media won’t take any more time than any other marketing campaign you’ve tried in the past – in fact, it is relatively simple to set up, and will take just minutes each day to maintain. What market are you targeting? If you think social media is just for the teen set – where have you been? Everyone is on Facebook and using Twitter – the 18+ group all the way up to the 55-and-over crowd. Whatever you’re selling – they’re buying, and will be twittering, blogging and posting about it. What’s all the fuss? Read on and then you tell me...

Social Media Helps You Connect With Your Customers
The pure interactivity core of social media tools helps you to connect with your customers in ways you’ve never dreamed of – and helps them to connect to you, giving them a sense of familiarity and confidence like never before. Allowing comments on your blog, receiving posts to your Twitter account and getting interaction from your Facebook page – along with traditional means of contact such as phone and e-mail – will give every customer the opportunity to reach out and give you essential feedback about your company, site and products. The information that you will get from these sources will be valuable beyond any data you could ever gleam from focus groups, polls or surveys.

Social Media Helps You To Create A Solid Brand
Say you want to introduce a new product or service – or maybe you just want to establish your brand more firmly in the eyes of the public. Social media is a great way to get the “word out” on what you offer. The platforms offered in social media allow consumers to talk freely about products and give their unadulterated opinions to “the world” at the press of a button. Getting a customer to talk about your product can mean rapid exposure across the Internet via blogs, Facebook friends, Twitter readers and even people searching for your company or product via search engines by keyword. So instead of “word of mouth” meaning a small circle of friends and family, social media allows it to become an explosion of exposure to a large audience consisting of hundreds – or maybe even thousands – of readers.

Social Media Helps You to Be Yourself
Most online businesses are run by small business owners – the virtual world’s version of the “mom and pop” store of old. Just because you have the potential to reach thousands or millions of customers just by setting up a storefront shop, doesn’t make you less of a “mom and pop” organization by basic definition. Social media helps you to establish yourself as a true “neighborhood store,” lets you get your personality out there for the consumer public to read and know – and helps you to be more friendly and available to your customer base. Tie your brand to your personality – who you are as a business owner. If you have a good sense of humor – use it. If you are excited about your product – make sure to say so! Just be yourself, be available to your customers and above all – be consistent. Customers can spot a fake or a phony in an instant – even in the virtual world.

Make sure to use more than just one social media tool in order to reach a larger audience. Find out where your customers are – do a little research yourself on where consumer ‘commenters’ are “at” online with regard to your specific niche or target area. Check out the competition – see what customers are saying about their products and use that information to improve upon your own business and offerings.

There are more reasons to use social media in your business marketing plan than NOT to – so forget all the excuses and just try it already. Your customers will appreciate being able to communicate freely with you – and you will find the more often you use these tools the more opportunities you will create to increase your business. You don’t have to be an expert to get it right – just be honest, available and above all: communicate!