Today I am delighted to welcome Philippa Bowen as this weeks lunchtime guest blogger, here she shares here thoughts on Social Media and what a positive impact it can have on your business what ever size !
There are a lot of people talking about Social Media these days and let’s be honest, you’re reading this because you’ve probably heard of it and use some of it. But do you need to use it, or these days can you avoid it?
So which tools work best for which businesses?
My favourite and probably the one that is easiest to use effectively for any business is Twitter. It has the most impact for ALL sizes and shapes of business and provides instant feedback – not many marketing strategies provide that.
Philippa Bowen
Small companies can run a GREAT marketing campaign at little or no cost to them (other than some time) so it’s great for start ups or those who are growing.
It’s an amazing way to connect with suppliers and customers. People who are willing to share ideas, thoughts, opinions and their time to help you with your business, if you only ask. You can get an immediate response to questions and requests for feedback.
For larger companies it’s a great way for them to connect with their customers on a personal level. It can make or break a business’s reputation. How else could they immediately resolve a negative issue and deal with negative feedback in such a way that people rave about the POSITIVE experience they’ve had.
However there are some brands that are doing themselves no favours; those who have opened accounts and done nothing with them, those who are broadcasting and not engaging and worst of all those who aren’t listening These are the businesses that are paying lip service and not getting the “social” bit of social media
For those of us who are fairly competitive, there are the types of social media that relate to “checking in” to places more often than anyone else: Foursquare, gowalla and now Facebook Places. For those businesses who are looking for ways of building brand loyalty and repeat business, again at very little/ no cost – especially if you can tie the offer in with an upsell or minimum spend! then these are the tools for you and your business. A warning for everyone else though – they can become addictive.
LinkedIn is sometimes seen as the most “serious” of all the most popular types of social media. It is a great place to build a reputation, to do research, get information, and make connections. But it works best if you have a strategy.
Decide what you want to do with it and get from it and use it that way. There are 2 extreme of people on LinkedIn. Those who are out to connect with everybody they can, whether they’ve met them or not and then there are the others who will only connect with someone they’ve known for 25+ years. (OK that’s probably an exaggeration but you get the idea) So pick a strategy that works for you and stick to it!
Be honest with people about why you won’t connect and ask them to get to know you elsewhere so that you can connect. But the true power of LinkedIn is the ability to build a reputation via the groups and the answers sections. If you want to become known as an expert in your field this is the way to do it. and for larger businesses, well they can display the knowledge of their employees, as well as being able to check out anyone who wants to work for them – and the job search facility is another powerful tool.
Wherever you live you may well be a member of another community – the 3rd biggest country in the world – if it was a country: Facebook. Facebook is moving rapidly to make its services far more available to the business user, but also to be able to keep your personal account separate from your business page, which wasn’t the case before this year. So more on the impacts of this as the use develops.
And how do you tell people about what you do? Well one way is through blogging. But if writing isn’t your forte then these days a vlog on your website or on youtube, or a podcast can work just as well. and what about getting a video testimonial, or a video of a discussion about a topic relating to your business?
So what is social media?? It’s a way for anyone, from any business to communicate with other people, be they customers, suppliers or other business owners. And can you avoid it? Probably not, but with so much choice out there why would you want to?
Philippa runs a proactive real-world business consultancy, focused on supporting businesses as they grow and change. For further information: Contact and for courses: Contact
