What’s So Great About Social Media?

We’ve long been skeptical about the efficacy of social media for SMBs. Our problem? The huge time commitment and the challenge measuring results. It feels like old-fashioned PR all over again. There are, however, several uses for social media that may well apply to your small business:

Watching the competition – If your competition is actively blogging and posting on Facebook or Tweeting, plug in and listen. You may learn some new tricks, or you may be able to sharpen your own offerings.

Listening to your customers –  The first step in launching any social media program is truly understanding where your customers are social. Geeks love message boards, gardeners commune on Gardner’s Index. Facebook is not the only game in town. Increasingly, these small vertical social media platforms will be where you can find your passionistas.  Once you find them, listen and participate in the conversation. Become your customer and prospective customer’s champion.

Building relationships with customers who are often online  – Here is where the major time commitment comes in. If you know where your customers are communing, then you know where to spend your time building relationships. That will save time right there. BUT the actual building of relationships must be both thoughtful and informative. That means a major time commitment.  Is this level of social media involvement right for you? Perhaps. Here’s one rule of thumb: if your prospects and customers are highly social off line chances are they are using a social media platform to enhance their communications. If that describes your customer base social media may well be worth the time.

Notifying customers of promotions and events – Once you have built relationships with customers, user THEIR preferred media platform to announce promotions and events.