In the last decade social media has turned from dorm room toy to an enviable business tool. Social networking sites have been proven to provide unprecedented opportunities to get word out about yourself and your business. Unfortunately, many people have not utilized this opportunity in promoting their self person and some do not have a clue on how to use these tools effectively. Experts say a good utilization of these tools can re-engineer, re-position and even re-direct a dormant person or business towards the right path.
Experts say the first step is making a presence, create a business account for your business with a well planned time table on how to follow up by updating current information, so that it does not die from lack of new information to your intending clients. Preferably, sign-up for a social media manager which allows you to manage all of your accounts on one site and schedule your messages to deploy, so you do not have to sit over your monitor all day.
Though creating an online platform to advertise your business is a good idea, attracting the desired traffic to your page is entirely a different kettle of fish. Experts say this is actually the most important part as your efforts will only remain meaningless if you do not have clients or intending customers on your page to benefit from whatever information you have decided to communicate to them through your updates and posts.
The best way to get more customers is through referrals and recommendations from top players in the industry. Look for other companies who complement your business, and who have similar customers. This works well especially when you partner with larger companies who may be more established and have more clients than you, experts say.
Either you are selling products/services or just publishing content for advert revenue, Experts say social media marketing is an effective tool that would popularize your product/service in little time. So the important factor here is to know why any company would need to incorporate social media into their ideas and strategies. Once that is clear your quantifying gains become a much simpler task.
There is no doubt social media is the quickest way to enhance personal branding, which also makes it easy to track social media buzz around your business and monitor it. You have higher exposure to your brand with online networking, and with spread you can gather hundreds if not thousands of prospect, experts say. Equally, do not forget to take personal care of your customers, even by adding online events and responding to your users can build loyalty. Sales teams should also use social media to generate leads and track clients as they move through the sales funnel, expert’s advice.
Experts believe social media has come to stay, and in no time savvy clients/customers will soon grow tired of corporate advertisers dressed up for regular conversation, so make sure you offer your product an online identity and more importantly ensure you always have something valuable to say to your esteemed clients.
Social media, in some way is uncontrollable. Hence, expect people to comment and share information about your business whether you like it or not. However, you can easily get hold of tools to monitor online comments and conversations that feature your brand or products. You can use this information to respond and engage with people commenting about your business. In cases of bad publicity you can go online, engage with your detractors and hopefully turn the conversation into a positive one, experts say.
ODINAKA MBONU
