Most switched on businesses today use social media – for a variety of reasons. The question is does it work?
That depends on what your expectations are of your social media activity. If you think that you’ll find your next big client in the next week, you’re going to be disappointed. Yes, it happens that a social media post can get you connected to someone who is looking for what you offer right now, but it’s rare.
You may be thinking ‘Why does everyone make such a big deal out of social media?’ If you’re a small business it can be challenging to do everything the business needs you to do to achieve the success you want – AND spend time posting on social media. Bigger organisations have a communications and marketing team that don’t have 101 other things claiming their attention.
So – it all sounds very negative so far, doesn’t it?
Look beyond the time consuming sales pitch and explore what else social media could do for you.
It keeps you visible. With the right tools you can have posts going into your chosen social media even on days when you’re too busy to think of looking at your feeds, let alone post anything. People don’t forget you – and when one of your connections sees something a request for something you could do they remember to recommend or connect you.
It allows you to see what’s going in around your industry. Again with the right tools you can run a stream around your key words. This means you can keep right up-to-date with what’s happening in your industry.
It lets you interact with customers. Some bigger organisations use it to lead their customers service function. If you set up your social media so that you get pinged if your company name is mentioned you can respond quickly to mentions. Either with a thank you for positive feedback or to address a problem and turn people with problems into the most loyal customer you’ve ever had.
It acts as a funnel for your website: If you post links to your blog or key pages on your website with the right kind of post it brings people to your website. If you have something to give away (a free ‘how to’ download, or tips sheet) you can build your marketing list.
So – will it deliver big paying customers daily? No, but it is a valuable means of marketing and developing your business.
