February 9th, 2012 : Is A Social Business Delivering the Best Customer Engagement Every Time?

If we are going to think about the question that is being asked in the title, what should be our answer? Is it yes? Or is it not?

First of all, one must define the term "social business." This simply means the business of communicating with people from all walks of life and knowing their needs so that you can give them the needed information and the products or services that they are looking for. Social business is very much related to social media marketing. It is where you connect to millions of customers through the internet and social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn and so on.

But...how will you be able to get customers to buy your product- in the process develop your business by boosting your profit? This is where the second part of the question comes- "does social marketing always engage the best clients for your business?"

The social network markets are vast, with countless amounts of consumers practically just at the click of a button. Taking advantage of these networking tools can be overpowering and an encounter that is often taken for granted. The problem lies when "just-starting" social media entrepreneurs make assumptions that are not true. One common error is that they thought they will get more customers to engage in their business if they have tons of followers in their social websites. They thought that they get more exposed online when they have several followers- success in social business as to engaging customers does not happen that fast. More importantly, the kind of information that you are showing your followers to, will decide on whether you will awaken their interests or sour it.

In this day and age where information travel swiftly through fiber optics technology, and the time it takes to make an online user check a link is less than a few seconds, making them linger for a few more minutes in your site is essential. While it may excite someone's senses when there is a great deal posted in your online store, the principles and the ideals that are present and are practiced in your industry- through the "About Us" tab is not noticed. Few people just checked your webpage because of the deal they found in an ad, but not entirely because they know your business and the long-term benefits that they can get from using your products.

The art of social networking is a convenient way to let customers and prospects know about the items you sell or offer, but it can transform into a powerful 'cash funnel' when one knows how to manipulate it.

While the basics of online social marketing are to create accounts in different social networking sites, it is so rudimentary to even start achieving real, significant results. You begin to present authenticity to customers when you include the link to your business/company blog; excerpts of press releases of your company; developments and so forth.

You can introduce your products and services to your customers quite easily through creating a "tweet" or a "wall post" in social networks, but the challenge lies on how you convince them why they should buy your products or avail of your services. In this part, social business is inadequate if left "unpolished" or not updated. Customers are people and "real" people needs to be contacted and updated with current news and messages.

For social business to be adequate and powerful in its truest sense, increased network traffic should be there. How to do it? Remember that internet users log in to search for relevant information that they want to know of. Use this as a guide and give the people what they have been looking for- information.

You already have your own commercial webpage but you do not have a lot of social network traffic. Since information is the key to attracting customers, that is what you are going to provide.

Create a blog. Update it weekly if it is impossible to do it daily. Post relevant content in your blog site. The term "relevant" implies that your content should be related to the products or services you are selling. You can also post appropriate information about your site. Keep your blog short but concise. An average internet user will just scheme through an article or search for the highlight of the article. Writing an overly long post can tire the reader and make him/her disappear from your site.

When you make a blog, does it in paragraph form? Through this method, you establish a genuine blog- and not some "sales pitching" commercial. Enable your users to interact by creating a poll or inviting them to comment in the article or in a forum. On your part, respond to any of their comments and messages.

Connect with your clientele - this is how social business is all about.

Tags: Social Business, Social Media Marketing

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