Social Media: Teenage Craze or Marketing Giant?
I had never given Facebook a serious thought until several of the youth in my church teased me about not having a FB page, so I gave in. I was surprised at what a simple process it was to set up; it took all of 15 minutes from start to finish.
For months I was a "lurker," meaning that while I have both a FB and Twitter page, I rarely wrote a post; I merely read my friends' posts.
Then I saw several companies I respect with FB and Twitter pages, so I began to take this technology more seriously, especially as a vehicle to better promote my own business.
The first thing I did was become "friends" with businesses that both had a FB and/or Twitter page and also appeared to fit my ideal customer profile. Then, last week, a young man who attended a seminar I presented began sharing with me some of his ideas for using social media to attract new customers and sell more to existing customers.
While for some time now social media has been a networking rage for teenagers and young adults, I have become convinced that it can also be an effective method for progressive businesses to network with customers, prospects, suppliers and perhaps other businesses similar to their own.
Here are a few of the ideas I have picked up about social media that you should perhaps consider including in your own marketing effort:
• How often do you update your Web site? If your answer is "rarely," you probably have a pretty boring and out of date Web site only a few months after you spent $2,000 to $4,000 (if not more) to construct it.
• On the other hand, engaging Facebook or Twitter posts can be generated very quickly and easily by almost anyone who has ever touched a computer keyboard. And both are FREE.
• One of my clients whose business is located in a rural market has over 500 customers and prospects as "friends" on FB and followers on Twitter. He uses social media to advertise product specials. When I asked him what kind of results he gets, he boosted that he frequently sells completely out of the product specials he promotes on his social media pages.
• Another client told me that he uses the camera on his mobile phone to take photographs of projects he has sold and posts them on his FB and Twitter pages. This client's theory is that because it is flattering for his customers to see photographs of their homes posted on his site, they forward his posts to their "friends," thereby spreading his company's name in a very positive way.
• Another client takes photographs of high-quality products and posts them on his social media pages. He reports that customers and prospects who "follow" him have seen these posts and asked for more information. The last such product he sold went for $9,600 and earned him a gross margin in excess of 50 percent.
• Since I am a business consultant and sales trainer, my Twitter posts are always money-making ideas for either salespeople or business managers. If the salespeople and managers who "follow" me on Twitter like what I "tweet," they are more likely to consider my services. See BillLeeResource at Twitter.com.
• Posts must be interesting and attractive enough to make customers and prospects want to follow you and read your posts. The best posts are made by personnel who are innovative enough to continuously come up with good ideas to promote.
• Recently I began following Travinia Greenville, a local Italian restaurant my wife and I enjoy. Their posts keep this restaurant on our minds and encourage us to visit Travinia more often.
• Some salespeople use social media to promote themselves and don't necessarily focus on promoting the company. So social media can become a part of a salesperson's "personal" marketing plan.
• If salespeople or managers read an article that they believe will benefit their customers and prospects, social media sites have the capability of giving a subscriber a simple way to post a link to those articles on their FB or Twitter posts. To better understand this service, click on http://bit.ly/
• If you have an overstock of items you want to convert to cash, post your promotion on your FB and/or Twitter page to get the word out to your "friends" and "followers" FREE and instantly.
• Some experts say that Facebook and Twitter are potential challengers to Google because instead of, for example, typing "seafood restaurants, Greenville, SC" into the search engine to find the names of all of the seafood restaurants located in Greenville, social media subscribers are posting questions like the following: "Hey, FB friends, I'm looking in the Greenville area for a high-quality seafood restaurant with excellent service and reasonable prices, please respond with your recommendations."