"Those who dwell among the beauties and mysteries of the earth
are never alone or weary of life." -- Rachel Carson. Social media has
made sure that people will never be alone. There is always a way to
connect to others.
Many business people regard social media as
unexplored and mysterious territory. There is a vast volume of content
that is being offered up online on a very regular basis. It may seem
difficult at times to sort through the massive amount of content in
order to find the gems that are really valuable.
The actuality is
that social media marketing is a lot more straightforward than you might
think. Basically, social media takes ideas that have already been
presented to the world and presents them in a new way. The ideas are not
new. Only the method or approach is new. In essence, social media is
based on some very simple activities or techniques. They are:
- Listening: When you listen (really listen), you are embracing information that will keep you on top of what is happening in your industry or niche. You pay attention to what your competitors are doing, which trends are important to follow, which new products and services might help you in your business, what is going on with pricing, and of utmost importance, what people are saying about you and your business.
The concept of listening is certainly not new.
Business people have been listening since the beginning of time. They
have used a large number of tools to help them listen more effectively
and efficiently, such as conversations with vendors, reading trade
publications, analysts' reports, trade association newsletters, seminars
and other sources.
With the popularity of social media, your
listening skills have become better because it is now easier to talk to
people about your business and you have many more and newer tools with
which to listen.
One very effect that social media has caused to
happen is the elimination of a great deal of the negative feelings that
existed in communications with customers. In the old way, people would
write and mail letters to companies if they had a complaint about a
product and/or service. That took a great deal of time and effort.
However, with the advent of social media, it is much easier and quicker
for customers to express their opinions, as well as people being able to
reach many more people.
- Networking: Business people have been networking forever. Networking has always been an extremely important way to meet people and start to build relationships for business. For a very long time, all of the networking was in the form of face-to-face meetings, at conferences, forums, seminars and a myriad of other industry events.
Face-to-face
networking should not be replaced with online social networking. Both
types of networking are important and one complements the other.
Everything that is connected to social media seems to happen much more
quickly than when it is real time. The beauty of establishing and
maintaining relationships with people through the Internet is that you
are not limited to a specific geographic area. You can interact with
people anywhere and everywhere.
Regular networking etiquette
applies whether you are networking online or in person. You introduce
yourself, ask the other person what they do, try to contribute something
interesting and valuable to the conversation, etc. Just don't try to
give them a hard sell.
Also remember that your approach to social
media networking is not the same as your approach to your social media
marketing strategy. Your marketing strategy is something that needs to
be well thought out and executed carefully. The results will not happen
overnight but they will happen. Social media networking will give you
immediate gratification but your social media marketing strategy will
not.
- Interacting: After you have successfully networked, you will want to interact with your fellow networkers. When people interact, they are starting to get to know each other better, gathering more information about one another and asking questions. Interacting used to be done over the phone traditionally. Over the last two decades, the phone has been replaced with Email.
Social
media makes interacting with other people easier than in the past. It is
very simple to answer questions from customers and potential customers
and customers who haven't even reached the stage of being potential
customers yet. When you respond to questions, you are providing many
people with instant gratification. When people interact, they discuss
matters that are important to them and topics of interest to them. Many
times, that includes speaking about products and services that are on
the market, including yours.
- Engaging people: Engaging people online is a vital part of your success with social media channels. An excellent way to engage people is to end your content with a provoking question. You can even be the first to answer your own question to get things moving. You will see that people are interested in the discussion and everyone will want to give their two cents.
- Sharing of information: Before social media, it was a lot more cumbersome to share information. People would have to go to the trouble of mailing information or picking up the telephone. Email helped eliminate some of the difficulty but people would only share information with people in their Email address books. Sharing and distributing interesting and valuable information is simple, quick and efficient now.
- Promoting products and services: Promoting your brand and products and services couldn't be simpler with the emergence of social media. At the core of the success of social media lies the magic of interaction. When people are willing to participate in discussions about the offerings of businesses in their industries, there is no more effective way to sell.
Conclusion
It is
critical for all businesses to keep up with social media and what people
are saying, feeling and buying. Any business that chooses to ignore
social media and connectivity with other businesses will not be around
for a very long time. Social media isn't really mysterious at all. It is
exciting, highly effective, and wonderfully compelling but it is not
mysterious.
