Why is Social Media Important??

Nowadays social media has become the fuel that drives our society. As a business owner, how can social media help me build my company?

Whether you're a big business or a small one social media is important because it connects you to your customers. Unlike regular marketing when it comes to social media however it's almost impossible to use the trial error method. Once you start you really just have to keep active and on top of your work to be successful. Something I've found the best to look at personally are the beginning steps to social media for business that an online marketing expert wrote:

1. Focus on desired outcomes first. Valid social media objectives for a business should include one or more of the following: increased brand awareness, lead generation, service and support, or reputation management. Obviously, the platforms and how you use social media would be different for lead generation versus service and support.
2. Incorporate brand personality and voice. Popular culture these days expects a more humanized brand voice, and constituents are listening carefully to the tone, vision, and expertise of that voice. Think about how you can project the voice you want, and make sure it is consistently used by all team members across all platforms used.
3. Identify the smallest segments possible of your constituents. Due to the information overload felt by consumers today, marketing at the generic segment level no longer works. Social media is the only one which allows you to be hyper-granular and drill down to micro-segments, to dramatically improve engagement levels and conversion ratios.
4. Identify the communities for these micro-segments. Traditionally, community implied a physical grouping, but today a community is characterized by what they value, more than proximity. More important than finding a community, is creating one, with your blog and other social media engagement. The best communities then become your advocate.
5. Identify the influencers of these communities. Social media brings all the aspects of important influencers these days, including peer pressure, authority, credibility, and in some cases, celebrities. Because feedback from social media operates in real time, you don’t have to wait months for results. You spend the months influencing the influencers.
6. Create an action plan with metrics. Good action plans include a listening plan, channel plan, SEO plan, and a content creation plan, with activities and metrics. Social media activities span the gamut from curation to gifting, building relationships and groups, blogging, service actions, to lead conversion. Pick the ones that fit your desired outcome.
7. Iteratively execute and measure results. Measuring is all about return-on-investment (ROI). This can be customer acquisition cost, revenue growth, profit, or whatever other parameters are key to your success. Iterate and expect to pivot, based on results, because you can’t get it all right the first time. This is not trial and error.

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Basically I found it was helpful to see the main important steps, starting off with the game plan of course something most of us don't really think about. What are the goals and how are we going to go step by step. Then we're told about brand personality which is a HUGE part within a business or website alone.Sticking to that is really important and keeps the customer base.

Overall, I personally think the launch is the most important. Stay active, and keep your customers checking in on the business, and seeing what's new. As it's not really how social media builds your company, it's how you use social media to build your company.

Biz Stop Inc. said:

Nowadays social media has become the fuel that drives our society. As a business owner, how can social media help me build my company?

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I'd concentrate on managing your business and social media will take care of itself ?
But then again, I dont have a Facebook account. So I'm probably old school.

Daroldi said:

Whether you're a big business or a small one social media is important because it connects you to your customers. Unlike regular marketing when it comes to social media however it's almost impossible to use the trial error method. Once you start you really just have to keep active and on top of your work to be successful. Something I've found the best to look at personally are the beginning steps to social media for business that an online marketing expert wrote:



Basically I found it was helpful to see the main important steps, starting off with the game plan of course something most of us don't really think about. What are the goals and how are we going to go step by step. Then we're told about brand personality which is a HUGE part within a business or website alone.Sticking to that is really important and keeps the customer base.

Overall, I personally think the launch is the most important. Stay active, and keep your customers checking in on the business, and seeing what's new. As it's not really how social media builds your company, it's how you use social media to build your company.

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So have you seen even greater gains while using Social Media?

Digital Doctor said:

I'd concentrate on managing your business and social media will take care of itself ?
But then again, I dont have a Facebook account. So I'm probably old school.

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I truly like the way you think but how can my business survive if it's not Social Media driven? Most companies that have been around before the "Social Media" era came up with a strategy to survive. That's a strategy that I would love to get my hands on.

Isnt word of mouth advertising still the best ?
Do a good job and people will tell their friends.

Digital Doctor said:

Isnt word of mouth advertising still the best ?
Do a good job and people will tell their friends.

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You're missing the point of telling friends through social media...

Biz Stop Inc. said:

So have you seen even greater gains while using Social Media?

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I've seen businesses that become who they are through social media.

Social Media is one of the best Platform to promote your business. You can promote you business using Facebook, G+, Twitter,stumbleupon etc...

Some social media is the best platform. Not all social media is truly even worth considering.

In short, it is the extra visibility that businesses receive. As a consumer, there are several local businesses (primarily restaurants) that I follow on social media for the benefits that I receive from them.

Take for example, a local Greek restaurant in my area called Opa! Opa!

Yelp: For those of you unfamiliar with Yelp, it is a social network business review website/community. Users create accounts to review/complain/praise businesses they have recently visited. Users are able to write reviews, make lists of their favorite restaurants in *city*, make lists of places they would like to go in *city*, and check into restaurants to show all their other friends who much fun they are having ().

When you check-in into Yelp, you get a small % discount at the restaurant on their sister restaurant called Sweeties -- sometimes a free appetizer. With that being said, not all businesses offer a discount when users check-in. Now what does the restaurant get out of this? Visibility -- when users check-in, the users' friends on Yelp or any other social media linked to it (ie Facebook) will see that said-user is eating there.

After this exposure occurs, other patrons generally reach out and see how their experience was at Opa! Opa! If it was positive, the odds are, they will give it a try in the near future.

Facebook: Some businesses offer discounts, chance to win a prize, and/or information on future specials on their social media. Continuing to use Opa! Opa!, they frequently post e-flyers stating when they are having a promotion or buy-one-get-one-free deals. If I had a positive experience the first time around and anticipate going back, I make sure to follow their social media to catch any deals that I can take advantage of.

Now, I don't know what kind of incentives non-restaurants can offer, but I am sure there are some creative things businesses can take advantage of. For example, since this is a forum about forums. TheAdminZone could offer users 1 raffle ticket to follow their Facebook page. Each month, TAZ will pick a winner for a month of 'Premium Membership.' Stuff like that. Generally speaking, consumers like free and/or discounted 'stuff'. The free (not counting the time and effort put in) exposure can do wonders if utilized correctly.

I'd imagine other social media outlets would work in the same fashion.

Just my two cents.

Daroldi said:

Not all social media is truly even worth considering.

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I don't know about you, but my forum defiantly has a SnapChat!

Daroldi said:

Some social media is the best platform. Not all social media is truly even worth considering.

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What worth considering?

Danielx64 said:

What worth considering?

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Personal preference for the most part, but I wouldn't ever rely on facebook personally. I think twitter is a strong platform to consider.

Digital Doctor said:

Isnt word of mouth advertising still the best ?
Do a good job and people will tell their friends.

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Yes it is, but in many ways, word of mouth is social media today.

I personally don't like facebook, so I tend not to use it, but twitter is doing wonders for me. It's the fastest, cleanest way to notify people that something is going on. That varies of course depending on what it is exactly that you are doing. In my case it's whenever a manga chapter gets released, and we host a discussion about it. I can either go through the headache that is mass mailing, fight reports of spamming and ending up in peoples trash, or I can tweet about it and within seconds people are aware of it. And there's a link waiting for them right there. They retweet it to their friends, and then I'm exposed to their friends as well. In the end, twitter alone will periodically email them about my tweet because it got a lot of exposure. It's magical I tell ya.

Digital Doctor said:

Isnt word of mouth advertising still the best ?
Do a good job and people will tell their friends.

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Yes it is imo. Direct connection with customers wins every time. That's why one of my businesses I run completely offline as the web presence isn't needed. All I need is flyers and a 1-800 number.

I've noticed that many business and website owners are getting away from Facebook. Facebook has odd algorithms whereas your fans might not see your page content as much unless they visit it frequently. Twitter, Pinterest and others are better deployed for a business/website owner. I have most of my success on Twitter to be honest.

Shawn Gossman said:

I've noticed that many business and website owners are getting away from Facebook. Facebook has odd algorithms whereas your fans might not see your page content as much unless they visit it frequently. Twitter, Pinterest and others are better deployed for a business/website owner. I have most of my success on Twitter to be honest.

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Yup. I moved my main business to Twitter. Facebook is the new MySpace to me...

Facebook to me is better geared at a personal site or a place to connect with friends and family rather than do any business on. I know a lot of big time bloggers that had decided to ditch FB quite a while ago. A lot of people are doing it nowadays.

In now days all the people uses social media to stay connected with friends either using Facbook, Google+,twitter, linked In, etc. A huge number of traffic is active on social media, if you want to promote your website then social media is one of the best platform to promote your website. You can reach your customer through Social Media.

Social media is a great way to connect with your friends, to promote your business and also to get quality traffic on your website.