How do you best utilise social media with integrity?
This is a BLOG, please comment below
In the following I have sought to clarify my overview and describe the experiences which I have gathered working with professional businesses for over 20 years.
Before
social media became so popular and used by the millions, how often did business
owners and employees write about what they were doing in their every day lives
and during their work hours? Was anything communicated in writing from the
business to the outside world besides presentations of products, services,
contracts and service documentation?
Before the advent of Facebook, when a sales professional was on the phone with
current clients or new prospects, what did they talk about? Most likely it was
not matters that either of them wanted to share in public. So has for example
Facebook better used as an alternative? Has it closed the two way communication
system, where you can go searching for people to approach?
The challenge seems to be placed on the business owner or employee, who needs
to asses which information is 'social' and which is 'business'. The terms seem
to be blended on for example Facebook, maybe because Facebook was originally
designed as an underlying support system for Network Marketing, which is a type
of business that blends the two.
However Network Marketing is only one business model which is still developing.
Looking aside from this type of business, what is the use of social media in
business?
From
the experiences I have gathered from myself and the many businesses that I work
for, I can identify four areas where it seems relevant and can be seen as good
communication to share information from:
News relevant for
the target group This is a balance; if a consumer wants to read news, they have the option available to go online and look almost any subject up. It is not the case that a business provides unique news very often. As the walls and inboxes of the target group is most likely already cluttered with newsfeeds and all sorts of information it's of importance that you, as a business, select carefully which information you choose to share, publish or send out.
Knowledge of
interest for the target group Sharing knowledge requires some work effort and it's up to the business owner / employee to assess what benefit can be achieved from investing time in writing articles or blogs and balance it with assessing the expected degree of interest, also based on evaluation of previous efforts. When you successfully manage to teach your clients subjects which are relevant to their requirements and maybe even form new basis for their future strategies, you grant them a valuable service which will build your foundation of client loyalty further.
Information about
new products/services This
information is only of benefit to your target group, if it's genuinely new and
not just a 'rewriting' of existing offers. Naturally it's appealing to produce
and distribute information about products or services in order to 'remind' your
clients, connections and target new contacts that have been added to your
network. Differentiated distribution to various target groups is possible to
some extent depending on the complexity of your tools, but not all can be
reached with even the most complex tools. Facebook for example is very much a
'one fits all' and it's not easy to target selected groups in this system. Post
news that are relevant and combine the news with a 'reminder' about the
products - and also seek to make members of your target groups subscribe to
your email newsletter.
Information about
offers, discounts The
disadvantage of making discount offers too frequently is that this can
undermine the financial basis of the business and the motivation of the
business owner / employees. Everyone wants to be paid for what they are worth
and what they require to keep going. Making offers can also be seen as if the
products / services are either over priced in the first place or it's a
desperate sales attempt from an empty order book, and why is the order book
empty? Also, the types of clients who 'shop around' for offers are not always
the target group which the business can benefit from investing it's efforts in,
they do not often come back and pay the full price.
The one things which has proven to be essential is that consumers expect a business to be present is social media and the clearer and more stabile this presence appears to be, the better the image. Relevance of information, timing and good social conduct are good guidelines for successful results.
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