Social Media

So I've had to reshape my thinking...

For the longest time I didn't fully appreciate social media. Sure we all (or at least half a billion of us) have facebook accounts and love to post updates about sick pets, car troubles, or the random time-wasting YouTube video, but how can these web 2.0 sites really help a business?

This last week I attended a web marketing workshop and much to my surprise my favorite subject covered was Social Media. Apparently the ROI for utilizing social media (though somewhat harder to quantize) can be astronomical. I'll cover more about all the ways next week.

One key to social media success though is that you as the business owner (or someone else intimately involved with the business who cares about it's success) needs to be the one engaging on social media sites. Sure you can hire a firm to set up all your social sites correctly with proper branding and interlinking, but you need to be the one interacting with your customers. That may be the biggest benefit of Social Media, the ability to engage with your customers. Respond quickly and personally whenever someone posts or comments on one of your social sites. One of the best revenue sources for any company is repeat customers. If you can become a part of someones life, albeit virtually, you can quickly establish long-term profitable relationships.