Facebook and Twitter are no longer just for teenagers. Over the past few years, the use of social media by businesses has skyrocketed. If you are one of these businesses utilizing the various sites out there, good job! If you aren’t, however, I strongly suggest that you begin experimenting with social media sites. If you have your doubts about social media, here are some great reasons why you need to stop being a wall flower and become social!
First, I want to briefly name some of the social media sites out there… Facebook, Twitter, Digg, StumbleUpon, LinkedIn, Foursquare, etc.
Now, why should you be using these social media sites for your business?
One great advantage is that you can run promotions a lot quicker and more frequently that you would be able to through paper mailings. People will see them right away, and hopefully take advantage of the great offers you just presented them with! You can also make these offers a lot more eye-appealing than you would be able to on a boring 8.5 x 11 piece of paper. A wide audience would also be seeing these promotions, instead of the small list of people you mail stuff to.
A very neat feature of social media that you can take advantage of is the use of banner and text ads. Millions of people are on social sites, so it’s a great place to advertise your business!
You can also talk about upcoming products and improved services. This will create a demand before the product actually arrives or the service begins. You will have built up a group of people that are ready for purchasing as soon as you announce the arrival!
Through the use of social media, you can reach out and connect with your audience. Instead of always trying to get them to purchase your services or products, answer questions they may have. It shows that you are indeed human, and not a robot that always tries to sell things. Doing this also helps display your expertise on topics in your field of experience, and can actually bring new prospects to you. Cool, huh?
Try your best to stay focused. Don’t try and be on every social media site out there, and do a less-than-ok job at it. Pick a few sites that you like and that work best for your business, and really focus on those. Make sure you are consistently updating/commenting/posting on the sites, as not doing this for a long period of time starts to lose your audience’s attention and makes you look like you don’t finish what you start.