Social Media for Business
Social media have become so developed that it is now essential to integrate social media into the marketing strategy of your company, if not for all then at least for interested companies who to find customers easily, quickly and cheaply. We must consider social media as a new market that opens up to you.
Why focus on social networks?
Although all companies do not have a presence on social networks but many claim to understand the issues. Indeed, it is exchange platform for Internet users and brands among the many topics addressed by them, either to give an opinion, positive or negative or issue a feedback, share information … regarding communication. It is therefore worth to use that can help you optimize the image of your business directly with your customers and prospects.
Why Every Business Should use Social Media
Your company may be well entrenched in its field for many years, your turnover has grown in recent years, but has been stagnant for some time. You may have considered making enter your business on social media or even more? But you may be scared or you just do not know what social media websites would do to your business.
Besides the almost zero cost of the operation, what benefits are to be expected of a presence on social networks? What benefits the companies get in?
- Manage your online reputation
With the emergence of web technologies, online reputation is becoming increasingly important for companies. Consumers are on the Internet to learn about products and services, so having the right image on your website is a critical issue for many small business owners. A presence of these new technologies can enable them to manage their online reputation better.
To manage and improve their online reputation, it is essential to remain sincere and develop a relationship of trust with its users. A presence on social media provides the opportunity to give a more human face to the SMEs and to create close relationships with its clients on these platforms.
- Improving the visibility of its brand
Whenever a person interacts with your business or discussing it with others on social media, the visibility of your brand increases. This aspect of “viral” these technologies can stimulate positive word-of-mouth around your brand. It is particularly interesting for SMEs with limited advertising budgets and cannot afford expensive advertising campaigns. However, it must remain alert to the fact that with poor management of social media, word of mouth can be negative. That is why the sincerity of the business on these platforms is essential.
To ensure good visibility, it is important to update the content of social media regularly and to promote dialogue with users.
- Improve customer service and have better knowledge about customers
The characteristics of social media are particularly suited to improve after-sales service of its business. Many companies such as Dell used their Twitter account to respond to customer queries against their products directly. This application of social media to quickly defuse potential conflicts and bring reactivity in responses to unhappy customers. This also allows understanding better the requests of customers and the possibility to improve its products and services based on this information. It is vital for this type of service to respond quickly and constructively to meet the client and show that your SME deals with its concerns.
One can wonder about the risk of transparency of customer service on social media because complaints or queries are in full view of everyone. In reality, this transparency has a positive effect on the image of the company because it shows that you value the heart to meet the demands of your customers. Several people sometimes share some queries. Have the question and available online response prevents SMEs to meet several times in the same query.
- Show expertise
SMEs often have unique skills and expertise in very specific areas. How to develop the best? Social media provides the opportunity to demonstrate its expertise and position itself as a technical leader in its field. Using a focused business blog to the skills of the company can be useful and allow the company can enjoy a positive image among its customers. This also helps to create a community of people interested in this subject and attract potential new clients.
What social media should you choose?
Four major social media stand out of the lot among the many offered. They each have their advantages and disadvantages. The next explanation will help enlighten you in your choices.
With over 1.7 billion active users worldwide, it is unequivocally the most popular social networks. It is possible to create a “Fan Page” that will give you the opportunity to communicate with your customers directly, publish promotions for members on your page. You can also create competition that will allow you to add more likes to your page.
Advantages:
– The largest network
– Create a “Fan Page” to offer promotions and contests its “Fan.”
– Easy to add visual content: Images and Video
This network of “microblogging” works in small text commonly known as “Tweets.” Twitter is a very useful tool to promote your blogs, your promotions. You can also follow different people, organizations or company so all new “tweets,” and you can also get support by other users.
Advantages:
– Ability to automate the message publication.
– There is a large concentration of techno fans, so easier to keep abreast of new developments and to join a larger amateur portion of techno.
Google+
This relatively new network is the social network that experienced the strongest growth of all time. Your Google+ profile can be found when local searches are performed. Your account is linked to your “Gmail” account (if desired), this lets you check your emails and keep your calendar, very practice to plan activities, meetings or appointments.
Advantages:
– Google+ influences the ranking on Google, so every time someone makes one, he shares or makes a comment, Google considers these as recommendations. This affects the display of results on Google for users logged into their Google Account.
– Updates to your profile or Google+ page are quickly indexed and available in the search results.
– Allow your company to be found when local searches are performed.
The professional network. It is possible to find potential candidates for your business, create business links, publish technical articles.
Advantages:
– Ability to post job offers and view candidate profiles, see their work experience, their formations.
– Exclusively professional network.
What are the possible risks?
It is important to take advantage of social networks to benefit from the many advantages mentioned above. Their use requires a particular expertise in this area. If a presence in network theory can be that positive, as with any medium, miscommunication could hurt your business. It is best to call a professional, better able to understand the communication mechanisms used on these media.
Conclusion
Choose the network that best fits your needs, and you enjoy using because the secret to having more traffic to your site is to be active on your social networks. Also, engage discussion with your visitors, customers, as they will make you suggestions for your products and services. Also be careful what you write and how you write, using proper language is important, especially when it comes to the image of our company. Good luck with your choice.
