Social Media and Your Business | Making it Work For You
Social media is a great tool for any company. It not only helps to reiterate to your customers that you are more than just a company, but it can also help to create lasting relationships and dialogue with your buyers. Smaller companies seem to be hoping on the social media bandwagon faster than larger companies, which can be seen through numbers like this:
Percentage of Companies by Size using Social Media:
- Small businesses – 44%
- Medium businesses – 36%
- Large businesses – 23% (source)
These numbers are perhaps a result of the monetary savings only, but there is much more that social media can do for a company. They include:
- WOM (word of mouth). Social media can be used as a PR or marketing tactic. When others talk about your company online and can link to you there, you can generate some positive PR and WOM.
- Crisis management. In line with being able to monitor WOM, you can also respond. You have access to the people who are saying things about you (for the most part) and you can reply to them, even, at times, remedying the situation with solutions and answers they were looking for.
- Brand Management. Being online makes you more aware of what’s being said about you. You are familiar and comfortable with the applications available to you, and you’re more likely to pay attention to what’s floating around cyberspace (also referred to as WOM).
- Customer Engagement. Not only can you help to encourage positive WOM, you can interact with the people who are talking about it. Reward them for being your customer! Make them feel important and involved! These are crucial aspects to successful social media use, and you can greatly increase the good will customers can feel for you.
If you do use social media, be sure to measure the results and to keep an eye on things that are going on in different areas online that you may not be involved with. More importantly, however, is to first establish is social media is the right set of tools for you to use. Are your customers online? Can you see the benefits that social media can have for your company? Is everyone else in the company on board? Have you consulted with PR or marketing professionals about this step?
While there are a lot of companies online and partaking in social media, there may be reasons that others are not doing the same thing. If social media use (your tactic) doesn’t fall in line with what you’re trying to accomplish (your objectives), there’s is really little to no reason for you or your company to be using the tool. You will be wasting your time and resources on something that is not working toward a goal you’ve set as a company. Are you using social media because everyone else is? Are your customers even online? Answer these questions before you hop on that bandwagon; there may be a reason some of your competitors haven’t made the leap online either.
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