Social media helps your business form new connections with potential customers you never thought you could reach.
Social media has become a huge part of how people connect with each other and brands!
As an individual uses social media to manage and nurture relationships, clever businesses know that it helps them do the same with managing and nurturing customer relationships. Forming connections is a huge part of what separates the businesses that continue to grow from the business that don't grow.
How Do You Form Connections That Lead To Something?
If your business is looking to leverage social media for gaining new customers you have to understand that nothing happens overnight. The things that go viral on social media are typically things that would make your business lose face. You wouldn't want to post nude photos, or strange meme posters, or gifs that border on the offensive. You want to be edgy but be edgy relative to your business. You want quality engagement (shares, likes, follows, etc.) and quality followers that are looking for what you offer. Like fishing, gaining customers through social media takes time and nothing forced.
What You Don't Catch You Keep.
Social media strategies that lead to new customers, drive sales, and increase website traffic are all meaningful and tactical. As you might expect, managing your business' brand presence on social media requires care and attention. I have met with small business owners who wanted me to train and provide consultation to a few of their staff on how to run and manage social media, in an effort to save on cost. The 2-3 staff members would be sharing the duty of managing the company's social media accounts in addition to their main role at the company. Thinking this would be easy, I obliged the request. What they discovered is a how complicated the role of social media manager is in reality. Social media does not need to be a time consuming activity. It is a waste of time and effort trying to learn social media and expect any results.
Social Media Helps You Figure Out What People Want
Developing relationships with your customers and followers allows your business to learn what people want faster. Through tough economic times your business could anticipate and adapt to changes in consumer demands and interests by tracking what content (such as photos of your products) is receiving the most engagement. Social media gives your customers an easier way to reach you and it gives you a faster means to respond to any customer questions, complaints, or feedback.
Get Serious About Social Media
Social media saves your business time in market research, customer service, and promotion, optimizing your efforts to reach customers beyond your town and country. Some businesses are content with where they are and don't want to tap into social media or even online payment systems through a business website. Do what you feel comfortable doing, but it is those businesses that continually improve their processes and keep up with their industry that stay in business and don't experience the extreme highs and lows of trying to operate at minimum costs.
First impressions are hard to correct online. You never know when someone takes a screenshot of a bad post and shares it. If you want to try social media marketing do it right the first time. Be as serious about your business as you are in the promoting of it, whether on social media or any other medium.