Bonus Section
Free Introduction to
“Top Reasons Why You Should Use Social Media in Your Business” http://bookgoodies.com/a/B00E80EZW2
Social media is the new frontier of relationship management and all firms need to transform their view of the customer and go beyond the limited and restrictive thinking of the one-way, read-only provider-to-consumer interaction.
Social Media is just one element of the “online revolution” and this is combined with email and content marketing as well as social networking.
What is the actual definition?
The web dictionary defines social media (noun) simply as, “Websites and applications used for social networking.”
Wikipedia states, “Social media refers to the means of interactions among people in which they create, share, and exchange information and ideas in virtual communities and networks.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media
Whereas all of the content, platforms, email marketing and networking are not new, the key to all of Social Media is the People, the Community and the variety of media utilised.
The ways that people buy things have fundamentally shifted from the marketing paradigm that originated in the 18th Century. Whereby department store purchasing was revolutionised and glamorised by Mr Selfridge in the early 20th century the internet itself brought huge changes in the 1990s, making online purchasing available, easy and affordable. The advent of Social Media emerged around 2004-2005 and really started to take a global grip in around 2007, when people realised that Twitter and other mediums were not just about telling people your were happy/sad about something in your life or what flavoured cereal you had for breakfast.
Social media is "interactive media". It is a concept appeared a few years ago and different from newspapers and television in that through this new media, you can not only get information, but also can leave comments and interact with others. Facebook, YouTube, Weblogs (blogs) and forums are all examples of social media.
With the development of better and faster processing and clearer and even self-learning or ‘intelligent’ programs, social media is playing more important role in marketing than ever. It is said that the income of Facebook reached 1 billion dollars in 2010. The main reason for the increase is the competition for golden advertisement spaces. In 2012, Amazon sold more kindle EBooks than printed books; there is a revolution taking place in the Social media and information space.
The following are three major benefits of using Social Media in your Business.
1. A Flexible Customer Service platform
Social media, although a relatively new and composite phenomenon, has been around for over 10 years. Facebook launched in 2004 adding to MySpace and Twitter and in many ways providing the catalyst for other social networking and community sites and programs.
In the last five or six years social media user numbers have increased dramatically and this does not appear to be a trend that is likely to come to an end. Social media use is actually increasing year-on-year even though some of the more established and early pioneers are seeing some rebalancing amongst their demographics.
In August 2012 it is reported that for the first time more searches were conducted using social media than conventional search engines. Although this does not mean search engine use has ceased, it obviously means that if you don't belong to any social media platform you could be missing out on appearing in search queries from a great number of people.
Just as important to the common public today is the ability to use social media to promote or decry a product or service. This means that social media is at the forefront of true people power. If you take a common and accepted use of social media in the form of Trip Advisor, many people will trust the reviews and reports featured on Trip Advisor for any planned hotel stay or holiday booking over and above any comments that may be made in the travel agents and brochures.
Businesses that do currently use social media should consider using it for customer services as well as engaging clients in promotional activities. There is software readily available today that can monitor all e-mail and social media traffic and automatically filter it depending on the context, and place it in workflow queues for the company's staff to deal with appropriately. Automatic acknowledgement e-mails, updates, direct messages or tweets can be sent in response to the trigger approach.
Businesses that embrace social media are able to quickly respond to any customers who raise complaints or post negative comments on any platform. This invaluable feedback, to the clever businesses, will then help formulate future products, redesign processes to become smoother from the customer's perspective, identify any areas of weakness in the customer journey and ultimately maintain and hopefully increase their customer's loyalty which will then result in increased profits for their stakeholders.
2. A Marketing Campaign tool
Contemporary marketing will invariably involve a ‘find us on Facebook’ or a hash tag to be used in some form of campaign, encouraging the usage of the brand in the marketplace.
By leveraging people power in this way business is not only get their products marketed by the masses but the reach and depth of market penetration can be greater than traditional methods. This can lead to unusual or unexpected markets that were not initially anticipated by the companies and the data received can then help formulate future products for different or distinct markets.
If a company posts a special deal or participation in something radical or extreme, there is a tendency from most social media users to repost and share the information with their fan base or followers which then creates a developing trend, attracting further viewers and sharing. This is when the term viral is used for some posts that attract millions of visits in a relatively short time.
Creating an effective marketing campaign can be expensive and time-consuming initially but in the vast majority of cases the return on investment through increased sales, greater numbers of customers and the new ways to communicate directly with these customers for social media purposes, then consequently leads to additional purchases of the same or additional products.
Large companies can afford to employ social media managers or administrators to enhance their marketing department but this becomes cost prohibitive for many small and medium-sized concerns that are just starting off in the social media world and are in many cases waiting to be convinced of the benefits. Smaller companies such as Let’s Talk Social Media in the UK can assist these companies by developing a marketing campaign for them and then implementing the actual elements required to generate the traffic on various platforms to provide the benefits of using social media properly.
Unfortunately some companies see social media is just another advertising platform. If you blatantly promote your company or your products and services then people will very quickly shut off and ignore or hide your posts: in the extreme they will remove you as a contact and this measurement is one of the key performance indicators that needs to be monitored over time.
3. Providing industry kudos and giving you the edge
Undeniably social media has assisted many companies and businesses wishing to attract new customers as well as enhance their current relationships. An additional benefit of this is also to enhance the relationship with their suppliers and distributors when they use social media to inform and educate the world at large.
Situations vacant as well as information about the company, its direction, development and general events, including social and corporate responsibility items can all add to the general appreciation of the business amongst their peers.
Building the company's image in this way provides evidence to other players in the industry at this company is an active participant as well as an innovative leader, and not simply promoting their own products.
By providing information and ideas on implementation of products and services generically affords the company a valuable position as subject matter experts as well as making them more friendly and conversational. This ultimately has the benefits of increasing their market share as well as being the first name people think of when considering purchasing their kind of product. Any company considering embarking on a marketing strategy that involves social media should carefully consider the impact of using various social media platforms in their plans as it is very possible to use the wrong platform and waste time and money in trying to develop it. A discussion and analysis with an experienced company will obviously pay dividends and save companies from reinventing the wheel.