Social media networks are very useful for you and your business.
If you aren’t sure what all the fuss is about surrounding social media networking, here are 15 benefits that social media can bring to your business and you from Success magazine.
In Business:
- Help establish brand. The majority of the population is already visiting social media sites. Using social networks like Facebook, Twitter or YouTube, can get your brand name and what your company stands for out to that huge population of users.
- Discuss a product personally. Featuring a product on a social media site is one of the fastest ways to bring attention to it. Offer a promotion along with it and you’re in even better shape.
- Pitch products in a more human, two-way method. People go on social media sites to be social, not to get advertised to. However, when you discuss your business in a fun way, engage your customers and entice them to respond back, you’re making a valuable connection that will help your sales in the long run.
- Listen to customer opinion. Social media sites are a great way to see what people are saying about your company. You can “spy” on Twitter and Facebook to see what people like and don’t like, then make changes according to the information you receive.
- Answer customers directly. Answering questions through social media networks improves customer service and satisfaction greatly, plus it saves you a great deal of money on long distance customer service phone calls.
- Gather informal market research. By listening to what your customers say about your products, tracking which links they click on, etc., you can begin to see what your customers like and respond to, then tweak your product or service in order to please them. Since people don’t hold back on social media sites, you’ll learn the truth and it won’t cost you a cent.
- Garner trust by making business appear personal. By speaking to your customers in a human way, rather than in a professional manner, they start to see your company as a trustworthy source that they can relate to, which will build valuable customer loyalty.
For You:
- Build reputation. Through many different social networks, such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter you can start to get your name out into the world, talk about things that matter to you and build the kind of good reputation you want.
- Display your resume. Joining LinkedIn allows you to display your entire resume online for any future employers and recruiters to view.
- Find a job. Jobs are posted every minute on social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, with the appropriate links or information of how to apply.
- Share information with like-minded sources. On LinkedIn, it’s easy to connect with other professionals in your field that live all over the world and share ideas on how you can improve certain aspects of your business.
- Establish yourself as an expert. If you are passionate about one subject, tweet or post about only that. Soon people will be coming to you to find out about the latest news on that subject, which will help build your online reputation, which will get the attention of employers and recruiters as well as other notable people in your industry.
- Showcase your talent, be it writing, photography, film or broadcasting to the world.
- Find prospective leads for sales and marketing on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. Search for these leads by typing in keywords that deal with your industry or target customer base, this will help you generate sales leads.
- Develop and enhance relationships. Connect with old classmates, family, friends and colleagues on social network sites.
