When email first became reasonably widespread about 15 years ago Business did not know what to make of it and how to make it work for them ! Well thats where we are with Social Media today .
I want to explain how social media or social networking is really crucial for business .
Social Media or Social Networking means the use of web and blog sites sites like Facebook,Myspace,Twitter and You Tube and many more as a means of communication.
So far the staggering growth in the use of social media has largely been confined to communications between people and not in business transactions.
Social Media has already proved that it has explosive Marketing power for example a Facebook group successfully campaigned to stop winner of ITV’s the X Factor getting the Christmas No 1 as is traditional these days.
The use of social media today is rather like the use of email 15 years ago when Email was largely used for personal communication and was just becoming a tool for businesses to use .Most businesses were unsure however about how and why Email could help them and in some cases just like social media today they even banned its use !
Larger businesses are already starting to understand the value of Social Media .Its value to your business is as follows:
-as a source of traffic to your website people increasingly search within sites like Facebook using the same keywords they use in Google. Consequently Social Media also carries more and more pay per click advertising.
-as a communication tool for interacting with your customers .Social Media is a brilliant way of reaching a lot of people at once –for instance Vodafone use Twitter for support staff to communicate and interact with users with technical queries .
When faced with a complaint or query- speed of response and direct access are vital.Too often customers are forced to wait on hold for ages on the phone or even for an email response.
-as an HR forum where employees can discuss issues problems and improvements in business processes.
-as a recruitment and selection tool e.g. Saatchi &Saatchi asked applicants to Summer Scholarship (10 weeks unpaid work) to join its Facebook (FB) group 6000 people did so the main section hurdle was each applicant creating their own FB group with most followers.The sucessful applicants had FB groups with more than 100,000 followers!
-as a Marketing tool for promotions-for example Bannantyne Health and Leisure launched a competition to win a Voucher for use in their Hotel and Leisure group the competition question was posted on Twitter the response was immediate and massive and the winner was announced 5 minutes later.
Social media used properly can improve communications with customers ,extend a personal touch and generate traffic and enquiries to your website .
We can help you develop a social media strategy for the new decade so for more information call email, twitter or facebook Choice Online.
