You’re a savvy business owner, so you’re using social media. Unfortunately, you can’t say for certain whether or not it’s really worth your time. If you’re asking yourself what you should be doing and what you should be getting out of social media, the following three musts are for you.
Business owners are some of the best idea people in the world. They find a need in their community and figure out how to address it, but the most aware business owners recognize that they can learn a lot and get a lot of new ideas from others. Whether just monitoring, dipping in a toe, or spending hours in social media, you can pick up a lot of new ideas in social media.
Use Twitter searches, Topsy, Social Mention, and other services to search for your company, your competitors, your industry, and mentions of your local area. Find people that are having relevant conversations and jump in to see what you can learn from them. And, don’t forget to keep track of what people say so that you can see what new ideas get mentions most.
HubSpot, Dell, Cisco, and Zappos are perfect examples of companies that involve their whole staff in social media, which not only takes the burden of the leadership, marketing, and PR departments, but also makes handling customer service and spreading awareness of the company easier because they have more than just one person supporting multiple channels. Imagine that you run a shoe store and have one employee that is really passionate about photography and another that loves music. Ask your photographer is she would like to contribute to your Instagram, Facebook, and other accounts that can host images. Ask you musician if he would like to share his love of music or if he wants to help create videos for the business that you can then share on YouTube and other channels. This helps to share the burden, since social media is time consuming, and ensures that both people with passion for social media and people with diverse interests get the opportunity to connect you to different parts of your potential audience.
Offering sneak previews of your new products or services online to your potential customers is one of the best ways to build demand even before a launch. The customers can provide vital feedback that can be extremely helpful in ensuring a smooth and better launch. You can post photos of your new products or services on your social media sites and ask for comments from customers.
