Social Media – Building Trust – Awareness – Relationships
Back in the day, building relations with customers began by word of mouth, driving by a sign, reading an advertisement in the local paper or magazine. Over time, businesses began reaching new customers through radio ads, television commercials, and direct mail. Then, technology started evolving into the marketing of today’s venues.
Consumers are now being targeted through many social media platforms. They are targeted for information overload and have to sift through all the noise to siphon the information that is of value and has meaning to them.
Through the stroke of a key, a business reputation can either prosper by positive reviews or it can be negatively impacted by critics. In order to be successful at building and maintaining optimistic reviews, feedback, and increase awareness of brands, products, and services, businesses need to direct their focus on building positive relationships through viral communities and immediately answer the negative. Social media is about building relationships, which is not to be confused with selling. It is about providing advice, adding value, better customer service and holding a business accountable publicly for negative business.
Social Media is more than just getting your website known; social media is about writing articles of interest on blogs, distribution of important information through article sites, social bookmarking, participating in forums and featuring news about products or services on video directories and many other venues. Let us not forget the importance of news or press releases and how they build awareness. Your audience wants value from the interaction of social media. A blend is the best mixture.
The most common frustration a business encounters with social media, is ever changing and evolving. While social media sites are constantly being created, others find themselves fading away, as technology evolves and consumers become more aware and more sophisticated in their online experience.
Balancing social media is both time consuming and labor intensive. Business owners, marketing managers, and directors, who used to do handle this themselves quickly became over whelmed with day to day operations leaving next to no time to spend creating and operating online campaigns, building reputations virtually through such sites as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc., writing content, creating and editing videos, plus keeping up with the evolution of technology. All these venues used for reaching online communities and platforms require continuous management, knowledge and expertise. Staying connected with online communities help to ensure positive reputations. Many savvy businesses decide it is more effective to have an in house marketing team or those that didn’t want to accommodate the increased financial responsibility, outsource all of their marketing.
According to: www.inc.com: Courtney Rubin, April 23, 2010, Inc. Magazine. “Why Social Media Really Is Worth Your Time”. ”The key question is: Can they show you the money? The answer is Yes. One in three business owners say, “that social media helps them to close business…” “what’s more, a resounding 85 percent of those surveyed say that the platform has created a buzz for their businesses…”
Bottom line social media is about building trust, awareness and creating relationships with in a community that has not walked through your business doors.