Social Media in Layman’s Terms
What is social media? What is a social media campaign? Can it really help my business?
These are common questions my clients ask me. The short answer is this… Social Media helps you stay in front of and in touch with your customers while maintaining a positive image for your company. Yes, social media can help your business or organization tremendously, if managed properly. If managed poorly, they can do more harm than good.
The most common social media sites are Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, MySpace, Yelp, and LinkedIn; however, there are many more available. As a general rule of thumb, the more sites you are on the better, however, the amount of time required to properly maintain your presence on each becomes an issue. It is best to choose the most popular and most visited sites by your specific customer base.
An active social media presence is crucial. Not only must you have a presence on these sites you must maintain an ongoing and informative status to keep your company fresh in your customer’s mind and maintain a positive image.
Having no presence or having a ‘dead’ (inactive) presence is one in the same. Customers need to know you are connected to their needs and that you are ready and willing to service them. If they see you have a Facebook page but notice that you are never online, never posting any content, and not responding to their inquiries they will view your company in a negative light. This is just as bad, if not worse, than not being on the social sites at all.
Would you rather spend your Income with a company you actively see online every week talking with its customers and being easy to contact or would you choose to spend your Income with a company who does not appear to be current or care about its customers and is difficult to contact?
If you have a question that needs to be answered or a problem or issue that needs to be resolved and you need to reach a company, who is going to sway you toward them? The answer is obvious. The easier it is for your customers to reach you the more they are going to do so. The more they are in contact with you the more opportunity you will have to offer them your goods and services. The more you offer them the more they will purchase and so on. Over time this relationship may prove to be the lifeblood of your company.
Please remember – your customers are people too. They enjoy being in contact with you so do not try to ‘sell’ them something all the time. A well-placed happy birthday wish, some general conversation, and interesting photographs will go along way to building a real relationship with your customers.
Unfortunately, I do not have any fish food examples to offer in the Social Media realm. Sorry.
Please see my other layman’s articles concerning search engine optimization (SEO), search engine marketing (SEM), and web presence. You are also welcome to visit my personal website. Thanks for reading!
