Business owners and entrepreneurs have their hands full with endless tasks to accomplish. Few would have the time to spare for social media applications, widely believed to be networking sites to pass time rather than accomplish something substantial. But entrepreneurs have begun to see the advantages of these social media sites, and the benefits they bring to businesses as an effective medium to promote it. Twitter and Facebook are often shunned by such people since they are not convinced how these will help in raising their bottom line. However, entrepreneurs need to understand the advantages of social media applications before deciding otherwise. Some of these include:
- Platform for high visibility- Visibility is the biggest advantage of social network sites like Facebook and Twitter. Since it s has memberships running into millions they offer as many potential customers, who will be able to see the product, recognize it, and then consider buying it since it looks so familiar. The entrepreneur need not stay focused on these sites, but a daily update of his status on such sites will help him make people aware of his products and services. Both these sites provide access to the end consumer, who can thus be converted into a potential customer.
- Popularizing brands- Social media sites are an excellent route for brand promotion. Besides making people aware of the brand in question, it helps entrepreneurs highlight the distinguishing features of a brand that makes it stand out and different from the others in its sector. Entrepreneurs hooked to Twitter and Facebook find it an excellent way to create awareness for their brands and reach out to people with similar interests. Twitter and Facebook posts keep others on the network informed about new brand initiatives and they help convert potential customers into paying ones.
- Greater customer interaction- Both Facebook and Twitter offer the best platform for friendly customer interaction. Entrepreneurs are able to keep track of customers and those interested in their products and services. Customers can post queries and have doubts resolved before deciding to buy a product. Thus customer service reaches a new level and direct interaction between producer and consumer helps to forge lasting relationships. Reviews and customer feedback forms the basis of improving both the products and the services for them.
- Which sites, Facebook or Twitter- While using both sites may appear to be a waste of time, the choice of one out of two would depend on the target clientele. Facebook is popular as a social platform where known people already having established relationships meet online. Twitter is a true social networking site where unknown people with common interests meet, and hence is recommended by many as the ideal site for expanding the reach of a business.
- What to expect from these- Businesses do not expand overnight and suddenly get a huge number of customers with membership of Facebook and Twitter. They are free sites, but returns to investment will take time after a substantial investment of time to keep the sites updated about the entrepreneurial plans of the company-but they do yield results over a period of time.
What are your thoughts? What networks do you use and which one has worked the best for you?
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Hi Neil
Interesting post. Being fairly new to blogging I found this post helpful. I am a regular Tweetheart and spend lots of time both on Twitter and tweeting good post to read. Also interact with people there too.
Love the whole networking with blogging and have become an active member of the blogging community. I see that social media managers are being paid plenty by the big companies so it must be working for them
I definitely see it as a valuable marketing tool. Thanks for sharing with us Neil. Much appreciated.
Patricia Perth Australia
Twitter: divinemscharity
says:
I have to say that for the most part, I use Twitter and Facebook for social networking for my business. I see the most returns and interaction from my Facebook page, but even that has not really brought in the customer base or sales that I have been hoping for. I believe that perhaps I am simply not using social networking to my fullest advantage in that respect.
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says:
I agree with you, Neil.
Twitter and Facebook are amazing sites and you can use them to build your brand, campaign and reputation for free. But one thing that most people still not figured it out on how to make these social media method to bring a huge and massive traffic to their business and offers. And this gonna take time, seriously.
Becasue people today will not just see a surprisingly interesting offer and just click it. The trends change.
I see most of my promotional results on twitter, however I do hear more and more people going on and on about how they are gaining new prospects and clients everyday from their Facebook page. Very interesting stuff!
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I'm using both to increase my profit and to invite more people to read my blogs. Recently I try promoting some of my products using them and i find them really useful. Facebook is my favorite way to promote and i get more and more traffic from there, but i still think that this is not my best and i'm trying to make it more effective.
Greetings.
Facebook and twitter are very important and create a lot of traffic. But most of my clients don’t really reveal their facebook as most of them use it for personal uses. So, I'm still updating and watching my facebook and Twitter pages that represent my business. I hope that they can help the success of my business in future.
Larry, I think that you are right to use Facebook and Twitter to promote your business and believe that these kind of social networking sites provide great platforms for advertising. However, Danny raises an interesting point about the separation of business and private content on the sites. Of course, it is highly dependent on the nature of your business as to how stringent you should be in ensuring this separation but it is always a factor that should be taken in to consideration. It's important to retain the professionalism necessary to succeed in business even if you make use of social media to promote your company and services. I would definitely recommend keeping entirely separate business and personal accounts and updating the privacy settings on accounts used for recreational purposes. This will ensure that whatever you chose to do in your own time will not affect the reputation of your business.
Social Media is never a waste a time. I have been using twitter and facebook for expanding the online presence of my websites and so far I'm getting good response from these tools. I think it's a matter of how you utilize these sites and take advantage of its functionality.
My wife uses facebook to promote her photography business and it works extremely well. She has got at least 50% of her work through this.
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Social media is for business promotion is still something that I’m trying to figure out and will continue to invest time in doing.
I do see the value here, but figuring out how to make it work for each market takes time.
But I also realize that you have to stick with it to figure it out or there isn’t going to be any benefit received.
Social media is something that I am still trying to get my head around. While it opens up a whole new means of getting your message out there I also see it as both time consuming and fraught with a few pitfalls.
There have been a number of instances recently where even big organizations have, to their dismay, got it wrong. Like a certain airline that stranded its passengers worldwide but then Tweeted them about upmarket travel – not a good move.
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The social networking sites are good if used them for social cause.It depends on everybody.
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You know for once I use to put it that but you could never go wrong with social medias could help you with in our lives as of the present.