10 Major Benefits of Social Media

Posted on October 30, 2011 by admin

I use social media- a lot. Not only do I use it for myself to maintain personal connections with friends, family, clients, colleagues and old acquaintances, I also use it to promote my business and my clients. The benefits of social media for both my personal life and business are obvious to me. But I’m finding out as I talk with some in the small business community that they are not aware of social media’s many benefits or sold on its effectiveness. So I’ve decided to do a little research and write some articles presenting the benefits of social media. Here is a recent article from my December 2009 newsletter listing what I believe are the top 10 benefits of social media.

Awareness

The first major benefit of social media is that it brings awareness. It is a low-cost way to get your name or the name of your organization on the web and into the minds of customers, patrons, and prospects. Anyone can set up an account on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Merchant Circle, Plaxo and dozens of other sites free of charge. The only cost involved is the cost of your time.

Identify Customer and Prospect Wants and Needs

Once you have established a presence in social media your business can connect with and stay in touch with customers to identify wants, needs, and problems- and communicate your solutions. Ask questions to find out what customers are looking for. Create forums on your Facebook fan page for fans to speak their minds about likes and dislikes. Since space is limited on social media sites (especially Twitter) when you need more detailed information, create surveys and questionnaires with a free tool such as Zoomerang or Survey Monkey and simply post the link on social media sites asking people to take the survey. Used with survey tools, social media is a great place to watch trends and get feedback from customers and potential customers. Bonus tip- if you want to get a bigger picture of the marketplace by knowing what your competitions’ customers want, check your competitor’s sites. Follow them on Twitter and join their Fan pages. Sign up for their emails. This is a good way to pick up on trends and get ideas for new product or service offerings. It’s also a great way to discover how you compare to your competition so you can know how to further differentiate yourself from them.

Listen In

The third major benefit is that you can monitor what your customers and others are saying about your brand. Sites like Yelp let customers post reviews of businesses. You can use Yelp and similar sites to find out what is being said about your company or brand and respond through social media. In fact, some companies are using Twitter as a customer support platform because of its ease of use and real-time updates. Likewise, you can monitor what your customers and others are saying about your competition’s brand. These types of conversations used to go on out of listening range of business owners and managers. Rarely did they know what a customer said about them- good or bad. However now, with so many taking their thoughts, complaints and comments online, we have the privilege of being able to “listen” in on these conversations and respond accordingly.

How Social Media Benefits Corporate America

Posted on October 30, 2011 by admin

As the prevalence of social media continues to rise, its use in a business environment is becoming just as important as its use in personal settings.

Organizations of all types and sizes are recognizing the ways in which social media can help them better understand, respond to, and attract the attention of their target audience.

As a result, businesses are now jumping on the social media bandwagon at a rapid pace, embracing blogs, social networks, wikis, and other vehicles to achieve their marketing and public relations goals.

What types of benefits can corporations achieve with an effective social media strategy?

* Get the Message Out Faster – and To More People

Social media enables more rapid sharing of information. It may take hours, or even days, for a new announcement to reach the end consumer through traditional channels. Why? Because when a press release is issued, a journalist or writer must first wade through all the sales and marketing lingo to find the key points. Then, the content must be re-purposed in article format, and sent it to an editor or proofreader before it is published.

Social media vehicles, on the other hand, allow for instantaneous dissemination of not just news, but images, audio, video, and other multimedia content as well. And because releases geared toward social media outlets contain only key highlights, pertinent facts, and hyperlinks to related statistics and quotes, the information they contain can be immediately picked up and posted by bloggers and other online journalists.

Benefits of Group Buying for Business

Posted on October 30, 2011 by admin

Group buying, or social buying, is the newest craze hitting the streets of Vancouver. For local businesses, it’s affordable advertising that uses the power word-of-mouth power of social media. It’s like having a bunch of sales people from all over town, talking about your business. You offer a coupon saving your customers 50-75% off your products or services and just sit back and watch the power of social media work for your business.

Each business deal is only offered for 1 day. It is accompanied by a details of the deal bio of your business, several reviews and often a summary of reviews of your business.

Small businesses have nothing to lose by advertising their latest Vancouver coupon deal on a group buying site. Your customers purchase your coupon directly from the group buying site. You set a minimum and maximum number of coupons you are willing to sell. Once the minimum is reached the coupon is activated ad will continue to sell until your set maximum. If the group buying site doesn’t sell your minimum, you won’t be charged. It’s really a no risk advertising investment for your company.