Social media is a new idea and very important in its own right.. The advent of sites like Facebook, Myspace, and Linkedin resulted in something that can be seen as a power exchange. Just a decade or two ago, companies determined what customers were allowed to know about companies, and all of that information was positive. You might have known someone who had a bad experience with a company, and you might have kept that in mind for your next purchase, but everything was designed to sell on their terms and in their way.
What Does it Do?
Now social media has brought everyone a little closer together, figuratively speaking, because you’re never more than a click away from information. It allows you to immediately give feedback on a product or marketing technique. It’s a personal relationship with customers that designed to make them want to support your company and buy your product, even if it’s not on sale or they can’t find it right away. Companies are able to monitor what’s being said about them online, and to correct problems quickly. The entire experience takes less time than traditional advertising and encourages a sense of camaraderie between customer and business that previously wasn’t available.
How Will it Help Me?
Any company can benefit from social media. You may live in and sell your product to a town of 200 people, but the internet brings you to people all over the world. Social media is just another way for them to remember you, your product and your brand. It’s a personal touch in an impersonal world, and that is an extra way to make customers remember you.
Social media is still new enough that it is possible to take it in almost any direction, and succeed with it. Unlike advertising, it doesn’t have to be expensive and it doesn’t have to take up a lot of your time, especially if you’re just starting out. In an interactive environment, the customers themselves may lead the conversations and invite new members. It’s not about control, it’s about people getting to know other people and a product or service, with product loyalty being an end goal. The results of social media can vary tremendously based on situational variables, such as location and type of business.
Social media is very important to businesses today and will only become more important in the future.
Ignoring the possibility of what it can do, and has done, is likely to result in disappointment. Social interaction, as part of social media, has changed the way that customers communicate with businesses, as well as how they make future business decisions. The old saying about any PR being good PR is never more true than when social media is done well.
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