I have already been on Facebook since 2006, Twitter since 2008 and used both platforms as a means to grow my supply company that I used to own. Yes, I even had an extremely active MySpace account. In the last 3 years, I’ve already been active at Google + and keep my LinkedIn profile updated quarterly. I also am active on YouTube. So let’s better understand and grow your company with Social Media.
So first off what’s the point? Why spend time and effort with this? I believe being an industry we’re definitely slow to adapt many of the tools available to us with social outlets. If you look at a number of the major players in our industry very little time and effort is placed into social media. Social media does take plenty of time and it is hard to actually see the outcome quickly. Also, for all in our industry, we’re more of an analog industry and are simply now addressing the digital age. Pad Printers are a prime example. Wonderful creative and talented individuals who stamp ink. They can make anything work, but ask a hardcore pad printer their applying for grants the digital sublimation systems is usually “that horrible trouble creating machines can take a flying leap… ” However in the right environment with the right market, sublimation can be quite a savior for a pad printers business. So back once again to Social media…
So why the do we need to be on social networking? 37 million people log onto to Facebook daily, and in the last 10 minutes, 40,250 Tweets have already been posted. Think about Google +? Who do most many of us go to whenever we want to find something on the web? You can find 5,922,000,000 (Yes that’s 5.9 Billion) searches on Google per DAY. Google holds a staggering 67.6 percent of the U.S. se market share, according to the latest se market share figures for April 2014, released by comScore. Being on G+ and talking about search terms that are important to your company along with sharing links to your website on G+ correctly can help your search ranking. By improving your search ranking you may have a much better likelihood that someone would go to your website who is interested in the merchandise and services you offer. So the numbers are right. There’s an audience and chances are nearly all of your visitors are somewhere on social networking waiting for you really to talk with them.
The other basis for most of us could be the price. The price can not be beat… FREE! Being social is totally free and just does take time and effort. You can find things you are able to spend money linked to social networking that may make things only a little easier, but honestly people carrying it out right and spending the full time needed don’t have to pay for anything to advertise their business and find new customers. What are your alternatives to reaching your visitors? You can exhibit at a trade show or home show or another event. Intend on spending $5,000 to $10,000 to actually do this right, though. smm panel You can do internet advertising with banners or Google AdWords. Intend on spending $1,000 to $2,000 monthly to get the type of reach you can get with social media. You can put ads from the air, TV or even the area newspaper, but again they all cost money, a commodity that many small businesses don’t have in abundance yet. Now using social networking to enhance the ROI (return on investment) for the aforementioned things is something you should be taking a look at doing. Let’s say spent the $5,000 to display at a nearby home show, but by luck of the draw end up in a corner behind the area loud mouth realtor and no body concerns see you. Think about using social networking to get people after dark realtor with images of one’s booth, jokes in regards to the loud mouth realtor or otherwise. Be yourself and help people come find you.
Another plus could it be is not one sided like a number of other marketing methods, you don’t have to be the only one growing your company with it. Real quality interaction is driven by your visitors and potential customers. Your job is always to foster interaction between your company and products. This is simply not the elevator pitch where you have 30 seconds to offer your goods and services, here is the time to speak about things that interest your customer and build a connection that may turn them into lasting customers. Also, happy customer make the BEST salespeople so give them an outlet to advocate for the brand with an active social networking plan.
What exactly else can be carried out? With social networking, you can even use it as something for Customer Service. Yes, I’m guilty of using our Twitter to vent my frustrations with poor service received by way of a company. I also act as alert to shouting out good customer care by companies via social media. Many companies have figured it out and actually do a fantastic job of helping, supporting and taking care of their customers with social media. Then you can find the types of those who have made massive blunders. An organization that most of us in our industry might have heard about made the Inc. Magazines top 10 social networking fails in 2014 for their posting of an image of the Challenger space shuttle exploding as a means of celebrating the 4th of July on the Tumblr page. They took a beating for this and the excuse was the social networking manager came to be following the Challenger disaster and didn’t know it had been it was. On the flip side with this coin you have plenty of companies in our industry and beyond that get it and do a good job of interacting making use of their customers and making social networking a built-in part of their customer care plan. As an example, I’m a loyal flyer on Southwest because of the help I received via their Twitter team when I was having some challenges traveling with my Autistic son. They sprang into action and made our journey a pleasing one and now I hardly fly anyone else. You can do things like monitor for comments about your company or product and then just be sure you are doing the right thing on social media. You’ve to place yourself in their shoes and wear your “empathy” hat when interacting with others on social media. Check your ego at the door!
Social media can be used as something for research and product development. You’ll find a number of information about your competitors, your visitors and potential customers on social media. The secret here’s to you need to be the main conversation. You have to be a human, not only a Twitter Handle or even a Facebook Page. You’ve to give something to get something. What this means is solving problems, giving tips and tricks, opening the curtain to who you’re as an individual and company. When you try this then you can get people to answer questions like “Do you prefer the black edge plaque with this design or the cherry edge plaque with an alternative design?” You may also find out if your competitor XYZ Company takes too long to provide an item, or has other weaknesses that you might be able to take advantage of by being truly a the main “group” on social media.
Whilst you will see in my experience being an integral part of social networking can be quite a huge lift for your company and gives you a number of tools not to only promote your company but to also understand and better service your customers. It is liberated to be an integral part of it just takes time. But if you think in what your average day seems like, how often have you been just reading the most recent click bait article that your friend posted on Facebook or taking a look at the most recent Disney quote on Twitter and other time wasting activity. Why not take those 15 minutes and devote it to being active on social networking in a way that talks about your business. Think about encouraging your employees to be active on social networking because it relates to your business. All it requires is for the word to start spreading and you will dsicover results. They won’t be huge or immediate, however, if the effort is place in and you’re daily being truly a the main conversation where your visitors are at on social networking, you will wake up in 6 months to a year and notice that it is working.
