Social Media for Business

Archive for August, 2010

Keep your friends close and your competition closer

Aside from gaining an insight into your competition, LinkedIn  also gives a way to browse company pages and be informed about potential hires. It is more or less 150,000 companies have their profile in LinkedIn which is the “public profile” for companies. Recent hires, movers, shakers, and company’s key stats are found on this page. In business, being updated and being connected is an advantage.

  

Win new business by answering questions and using advance search or LinkedIn, porential customersfor your business can be found. This is another opportunity to win new business or at least find prospective clients. Your answer to a question that has been asked will be posted and soon to be found when others search and use LinkedIn. What you have in your area of expertise will be your edge.

 

Acquire new customers through online recommendations and word of mouth.

  It is very effective to advertise through third party recommendations. By asking your happy clients to write you a recommendation, which is then published on your LinkedIn profile, has a far bigger impact to other customer than any form of paid advertising since a recommendation is social proof of someone who had already experienced the quality of your service or products. LinkedIn then informs everyone in your network of a new recommendation and it can be seen by anyone who visits your LinkedIn profile.

 

Build your industry network—online and in person

Finding an industry events that your prospective clients are attending could be another way of discovering targeted prospects. Through searching in theLinkedIn’s Groups category, it is  possible to find industry associations and networks tthat you can join and contribute to. You can also learn about events that your connections are attending , and if appropriate attend the event yourself, knowing that there is a great opportunity to connect with potential clients. An example for this is in an event planning or wedding industry, there are over 530 groups. It can be really helpful that you are able to find  industry events that your prospective clients are attending, by connecting with them first in an industry related group

Twitter, if you did not know, can give you the edge you need in business promotions.  It is the best way to use for Internet marketing purposes.  How can you do this? Establish personal relationships with potential clients and consider what appeals and what does not. If you can do this, rest assured you will enjoy and reap the benefits of Twitter.

How do you establish personal relationships in Twitter? Of course, you do not want to sound boring and sales pitchy at once.  Reach out to a potential client who is interested to take time to check your Twitter profile and read your tweets. Reach out by sending direct messages to this person who has the hopes of learning something of interest.  Saturate social media circle with helpful information about your business with the hope of generating sales.

So you begin to gain followers. Send them a line or two and thank them for following you. Do this by using direct messaging feature. Commonly called as DM, or direct message, it is Twitter’s private message service. If you send a DM, only the recipient can read the message.

It is possible to automate your ””Welcome, Thank you for following me”  DM. This is done outside Twitter that allows you to automatically follow people who are following you. It will also allow you to automatically send a DM to anyone who starts to follow you. Sounds like a good and easier idea, isn’t it? So, if you are marketing yourself or your product line, why not automate things?

Well, this marketing technique is good. However, it can be a boon or a bane. The advantage with an automatic direct messaging is that you can reach a potential customer anytime. But the biggest disadvantage is that you can be perceived as spam and your message ignored and deleted.

Ideally, the best thing to do is to sit in front of your computer and personally respond to your DMs.  This may consume so much of your time especially if you have  many followers everyday. Well, take time to check out their profile and send them a DM by saying something about their interests, location, or how your product can be of use to them.

Invest your precious time in networking. Well, if time is of the essence, you can opt to automate your DM with a personalized message. Do not sell them your products at once. Rather, say something like “Hello. Thanks for the follow…” and so on and so forth.  Make it sound like a smart automated DM. Address the person with their first name or mention where they are located, or perhaps how many followers they have gained. Persuade them with your words to let them read your posts, or buy products.

So, what is your option? To automate direct messaging or not?