Smart Use of New Social Media
If you are a business and you are not embracing new social media sites such as LinkedIn, Google+, Facebook and Twitter then you are not fully reaching your target audience. Chances are that your audience is on one or more of these social media sites as well as your existing clients. At first glance, social media may not seem like tools that are overly useful to a business, but you are wrong. Social media helps you stay connected to your clients and help you bring in new clients.
Consider this, when you network with your clients and potential clients on social media sites, you have a greater potential of reaching new clients through your interactions with the people already on your network. For example, when you put up a post or a tweet that Client A finds interesting and relevant and they share it, everybody who is a friend or follower of Client A’s will see your post or tweet that they shared. The more people who share it, the more people your post will reach.
If you are a small business owner, social media is a goldmine for finding new clients. The caveat is that you need to have a constant presence online with information that is informative and interesting. If you tweet the same link to the same blog post once a week for a month, that will not get any interest. You need to have fresh, updated information; information that shows who you are and what you can do to help. Put some personality into the posts and it will help your clients and potential clients connect to you better.
Another reason that social media is a good idea for business is the social aspect. It is social media after all, but social media allows you to interact on a more personal level with your clients and potential clients. People like to think that they matter, and especially if you are an advisor, your entire business can hinge upon your connection with your client.
People love to interact, and when you reply to them, no matter if their comment is good, bad, or indifferent; it shows that you care. What they have to say matters and when they feel that way, they are more likely to go with your services than that of somebody who does not take the time to reply to them or to interact.
You can get and reply to feedback, answer questions from potential clients and use your social media sites to promote your business and educate people about your services. Do not just tell they what you do, show them what you do and why it will benefit them. Linking your blog to your social media presence will help draw people to your website as well.
Bigger businesses can advertise but with social media, you have a goldmine of potential customers waiting for you and you can do something that a larger business cannot do, you can use social media to stay in touch with your clients. You can use it to foster better and stronger relationships with your clients, who will, in return, be more likely to recommend your services to others.
Social media is your chance to create a highly visible web reputation for yourself and your business. You can easily promote various aspects of your business or use your posts to educate potential clients about your services, remember, if they do not know what you can do for them, they will not enlist you for your services. Small businesses that get to know their clients through social media have a higher success rate for client retention and for bringing in new clients than those who underutilize new social media sites.
If you have shunned new social media because you do not understand it, start using social media. Profiles on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and Google + do not take long to set up and it will help connect you to a broader audience in the end. Keep in mind that you want to have a certain brand for yourself, decide what that will be and then stay on track. Social media profiles should be linked together as well as linking to your webpage and/or your blog. Together, these make up the core of your internet presence and your digital footprint that will help you build up your business faster, while retaining more clients.
