The beginning of July marks the 65th anniversary of the “incident” at Roswell. To this day, when it comes to the Roswell incident, the world can be divided into ‘believers”, “non believers” and “undecided”. I’d like to say that I’m a believer. Although I watch enough science fiction to qualify as someone who should be a believer, I’m actually more in the “undecided” camp.
People can be place into the same three categories when it comes to using social media for business. Obviously, I fall into the “believer” category when it comes to the benefits of social media for business. Though I have come into contact with plenty of people in my offline life who doggedly refuse to understand what I do. Unlike the believers of the Roswell incident, the social media believers don’t need to prove that social media for business exists. We need to prove it can be used as a business tool.
What should you use as information when trying to introduce a social media program to your boss or to a client? (Warning – jargon & buzzwords ahead)
- Social creates “warm leads“: Getting involved in social is a way to introduce your business to a community. It gets you involved in a conversation with potential clients/customers where you are not directly selling to them, but you are able to show your expertise in your niche in other ways.
- Social keeps you “top of mind” (Brand Awareness): Once people like your Facebook page or start to follow you on Twitter, Pinterest etc. – they will begin to see the information you share. Even if they may not need your service now – constantly appearing across the channels with useful content will keep your name out there.
- Social humanizes your brand: When you are active in social, it not only will give your brand a ‘face’ but it can also show a personality. Customers and potential customers begin to think of your brand as a friend and will be more apt to use and/or recommend your products or services.
- Social acts as another arm of customer service: The 24/7 aspect of social, along with the ease of connection, allows for a more transparent form of customer service. Not only can you monitor what is being said ‘to’ you, a business can also monitor what is being said ‘about’ you in the social space and address customer issues (and celebrate positive stories) in real time. Often this can save a customer/business relationship from quickly going bad.
- Social allows for real time customer feedback: Similar to the above, a business or brand can use social media to reach out to customers. Crowdsourcing surveys and Facebook questions are all great ways to get a quick response from the end user on what they think. Looking back to 2010 when Gap ended up tossing out an expensive redesign of its iconic logo , you have to wonder how preemptively finding out opinions on social would have changed the outcome.
- Social can help SEO: The creation of new, high quality, original content and sharing it via social will help your business grow in the rankings. It gives you more authority and the more shares that go out the more chance of you creeping up that scale.
Those are just a few of the things to help you prove that having a social marketing campaign is more than just a “weather balloon”.
So are you a believer?
