Do You Have Time for Social Media?
Yes, social media can be time consuming but it’s worth it. Like anything worth doing, it’s worth doing well. And to do it well, it may take you a little time. Thinking of not investing the time? Ask yourself this: Can I afford not to invest the time? I know, “Time is money”…trust me, I know! Let me explain why I think you should invest your time.
Unless you are a huge brand like Coke that had a “fan” create their Facebook fan page for them - imagine that…their customers taking the time to do their social marketing for them…and people talking all day about how they love their product…whoa – you will need to devote some time to figuring out a social media strategy.
Maybe you’ll start with a Facebook ad or Fanpage…Maybe a Twitter account…maybe all three. Whatever you do, have a “game plan.” Look around and see what other businesses like yours are doing. I’m not saying you should copy them, but you can certainly learn from them. Play around with Tweetdeck, Seesmic, HootSuite and other free services that help you organize your online presence and engagements. Find the one that suits your needs and makes sense for your business.
Think your customers aren’t talking about you online?
Think again! Not only are they talking about you, they’re also sharing their opinions with their friends, relatives and total strangers. Can you afford not to listen to what they are saying? Wouldn’t you like to be able to thank the people saying nice things about you…and have an opportunity to turn an unhappy customer into a happy one?
More and more small businesses are running targeted ads on Facebook, developing fan pages and keeping customers happy on Twitter. Why? Because that is where their customers are! So that is where you need to be. Not should be…NEED to be. Did you know that Comcast, Southwest Airlines, QWEST and Verizon all use Twitter for customer service?
Here is a great article that gives you seven cases of businesses using Twitter to service customers.
Engagement is key. As most of you know, when you make a connection with a customer, they’ll keep coming back to your store. They come in because they like something about you or your store. They will tell you by their reactions to your small talk or smile what level or type of engagement they want.
What people who use SMS (Social Media Sites) are telling us/you is they want to engage on these sites and expect to be engaged with before they make a purchase. Here is another great article that will give you some insight into how small businesses are using social media to compete with large brands.
There is a new breed of consumer coming…really they are already here. If you don’t understand where they are coming from, you aren’t going to know where to look for them, and more importantly, how to sell to them.
So…do you have time for social media?
Next week I will give you my thoughts on a few of the free tools I mentioned today - Tweetdeck, Hootsuite and Seesmic for starters.
If you have any questions on anything you see here, just leave a comment on this post…I will be glad to help you out.
Until next week,
Christina Kudym
