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Author: Recent conversations between my 20-something kids include, “Have you seen my profile in Facebook?” or “Have you read Ashton (Kutcher) and Demi’s (Moore) latest tweets?” Facebook and Twitter are just two examples of sites where people can talk to each other. This “talking to each other in the internet” is coined as social media.
As an entrepreneur, you may be wondering how you can make use of this trend to the advantage of your business. It’s quite simple actually. Think of the “word of mouth” advertising. People talk in these sites about how they feel at the very moment as well as trivial matters about the world, politics, sports events and religion. They might have come across your products too, and decided to mention it over their personal pages to say that they liked or disliked them. Who knows?
They could campaign for or against you depending on how much your products have satisfied them. If they don’t, your business is in grave danger of losing buyers as campaigners can gather a reasonable number of people who will turn against your company. If they do like what you’re selling however, you’ll see the positive effects it will bring to your company.
Some people, to some extent, will even honor your brand through their personal pages. The same has happened to brands like Coke, Starbucks and the likes. Good experiences are shared in these pages making other people aware of the “goodness” of your products.
The knowledge provided by the usefulness of social media basically gives you the idea of how you could steer your marketing strategy to promote your business. Social media lets you be aware of the things that make people tick with regard to the product you’re selling.
This doesn’t mean however, that you just go right ahead and open a Twitter or a Facebook account. You have to make certain preparations and adjustments to the things that you want out of social media. Meaning you will have to employ several plans and choose the best one that has the highest percentage of working well.
One of the things that you should consider, for example, is the content that you’ll be feeding the public on these social networking sites. You have to refrain from talking too much about what your business is about. This an interaction between you and the consumers, not a monopoly of knowledge on the products.
To avoid losing so many followers and “friends” in these sites, remind yourself of the following: to make friends first and foremost, to listen to what people are saying about your products, to respond in an interesting tone (while incorporating your products to the response)and to update your company as well as your site. Hear what they say and make them realize that “yes, you are listening” by applying the favorable changes in your products. You may also invite people by posting promotional events on your products and some offers. This would make them feel that they make a difference to your business, which is undeniably true. They do.