All we hear about today is social media, are you on Facebook, Twitter, Linked In? BBM me, or Skype me, can you text me? How did we survive before all of this? As a business owner what are you presently doing to attract new business, and how can all of this help you?
Benefit or not?
Question is, how can you benefit from Social Media, are you a local company or a national company. Are you online or not. No matter what the answer is, your business will gain from using some or all of the above. I have a UPS box, and every time I get a delivery, I get a text (SMS) from the owner. Yes, it probably took a little time to add me to her phone and create the generic message, however, I appreciate it. Let's say you operate a store that sells products, you could use Twitter to advise customers that a new product has arrived, or you could Tweet an update on a product. BBM, SMS and Twitter are great for short notices, updates, or confirmations. They all save you the time of creating and sending email's. All you have to do is ensure that your customers either follow you, or you have their number to text them.
Skype is a must if you are in business! It's free, use your computer to talk or message anyone in the world. More and more professionals are including their Skype address on their email signature block so that you can communicate with them in that matter. I have a team in the Ukraine, a CTO in Brazil, business associates in Montreal, and countless people in the US that I message with throughout the day on Skype. If you can type, get Skype, it works on your computer, PDA, Ipad, Iphone and most of everything else. Linked In is great if you are in the service industry, however, be careful who you accept as a connection. Some people are just there to see how many connections they can gather, and,. at the end of the day if you don't know these people or communicate with them, well it's just a waste of time. Linked In is great for jobs as well, you can connect with the HR people from most companies, get referred by someone you are connected with that knows them and you can really re-create yourself on a daily basis.
And that leaves us with Facebook (or Google+, or others). I have yet to learn to use the power of Facebook. I understand it on a personal note, however when it comes to business, I am not quite sure. Here are somethings that I can tell you; don't mix your personal stuff with business. HR people will look for you everywhere, seeing you inebriated, partying or whatever else on your Facebook page...not smart. Although they have to be invited to see your page, I am not so sure that you want to post everything until you get a good grasp of how it works. Here something that Facebook is excellent at, exponential growth! If you get someone to like your page, it goes to them, if someone on their page likes it, it goes to them and so on. So, if you have some interesting stuff to post, and you get others to like it...WOW! Imagine, you have 20 friends, and they like it, you just went from a single post to 20. Now let's say that these 20 also get 20 to like it, you just went from 1 to 20 and then 400, imagine if you had something interesting to say.
So, in the future when someone says are you on, or connected, or followed, make sure you are and get them to like, or link, or connect, or whatever, just make sure you take advantage of these FREE advertising and marketing tools.
Question is, how can you benefit from Social Media, are you a local company or a national company. Are you online or not. No matter what the answer is, your business will gain from using some or all of the above. I have a UPS box, and every time I get a delivery, I get a text (SMS) from the owner. Yes, it probably took a little time to add me to her phone and create the generic message, however, I appreciate it. Let's say you operate a store that sells products, you could use Twitter to advise customers that a new product has arrived, or you could Tweet an update on a product. BBM, SMS and Twitter are great for short notices, updates, or confirmations. They all save you the time of creating and sending email's. All you have to do is ensure that your customers either follow you, or you have their number to text them.
Skype is a must if you are in business! It's free, use your computer to talk or message anyone in the world. More and more professionals are including their Skype address on their email signature block so that you can communicate with them in that matter. I have a team in the Ukraine, a CTO in Brazil, business associates in Montreal, and countless people in the US that I message with throughout the day on Skype. If you can type, get Skype, it works on your computer, PDA, Ipad, Iphone and most of everything else. Linked In is great if you are in the service industry, however, be careful who you accept as a connection. Some people are just there to see how many connections they can gather, and,. at the end of the day if you don't know these people or communicate with them, well it's just a waste of time. Linked In is great for jobs as well, you can connect with the HR people from most companies, get referred by someone you are connected with that knows them and you can really re-create yourself on a daily basis.
And that leaves us with Facebook (or Google+, or others). I have yet to learn to use the power of Facebook. I understand it on a personal note, however when it comes to business, I am not quite sure. Here are somethings that I can tell you; don't mix your personal stuff with business. HR people will look for you everywhere, seeing you inebriated, partying or whatever else on your Facebook page...not smart. Although they have to be invited to see your page, I am not so sure that you want to post everything until you get a good grasp of how it works. Here something that Facebook is excellent at, exponential growth! If you get someone to like your page, it goes to them, if someone on their page likes it, it goes to them and so on. So, if you have some interesting stuff to post, and you get others to like it...WOW! Imagine, you have 20 friends, and they like it, you just went from a single post to 20. Now let's say that these 20 also get 20 to like it, you just went from 1 to 20 and then 400, imagine if you had something interesting to say.
So, in the future when someone says are you on, or connected, or followed, make sure you are and get them to like, or link, or connect, or whatever, just make sure you take advantage of these FREE advertising and marketing tools.
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