If you’re just hearing about Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and all the other social platforms vying for attention… what rock have you been under all this time?!
Indeed, social media has long been upon us and many businesses have already taken a significant plunge into the deep dark woods of person-to-person interaction and are finding the immense benefits.
You see, the whole world is connecting daily to social networks where they spend their time looking, communicating, participating, and just absorbing. What better a place to have your brand front and center, participating in the same community, building it up, making it better, and earning new customers in the meantime? That’s the power of social media.
Social Media is Where Your Past, Present, and Future Customers Are
Having your business present on social media channels where your customers hang out gives you a crucial soap box with which you can:
- Get yourself out there and in front of people. Yep, it’s faster than the Yellow Pages, shinier than Craigslist, and more omnipresent than flyers on telephone poles (although roofing flyers are still effective). Especially in our highly mobile world, your customers are on social media more and more, giving you more chances to get in front of their eyes.
- Learn about your potential markets. Social media is a great feedback engine because whatever you do can generate some sort of response, or lack thereof. For instance, if you post on Facebook and get several “likes,” it serves as a trial run to know what wording, content, and approach gets the best response. Try several different ways to communicate your brand and product with your audience and see what sticks.
- Answer customer questions and doubts to ease the sales process. For most people these days, they are a lot more comfortable with finding a local business and asking them a question via comment or direct message than calling or going to a website and filling out a contact form. Decrease friction and help people contact you more easily by being on social media.
- Address any bad reviews or experiences before they do any damage and turn them into positive and productive experiences. Bad reviews and experiences happen. With social media, these reviews are published publicly for the whole world to see. But, if you’re in the channel, you can participate in turning that experience around by directly engaging the irate customer. Apologize, suggest a fix, give a gift or refund, and make right. Others will see this act and will build confidence in your ability and dedication to delivery great service for your customers.
Social media provide a whole new opportunity for businesses to find, engage, re-engage, build, and grow. We’ll talk about local social media offerings in a later blog post, but don’t let more time pass before you start building a strong social media presence where your past, present, and future customers are.
