Why your brand should be on Social Media NOW

Social Media
Social Media (Image Courtesy: FreeDigitalPhotos.net)

Are you still contemplating on leveraging social media for your brand? If the answer to that is YES, I would ask you to do it NOW. There could not be a better time than now to have your brand leverage the immense power of social media channels & garner attention.

If you thought that social media is only for GenY, you’re mistaken. It has moved from the phase where people just used to post updates, share photos to more meaningful way of conducting business. Many of us rely on it to make our decisions – be it visiting a place or buying a product or engaging with someone. So it is NOW that you as business should connect with a larger set of people, engage them and blow them away with your services.

With the stats as these >> Facebook has about 1 billion users, Twitter with 500 million users, Google+ with almost 200 million, I can tell you, no other means of branding efforts will give you such an audience.

But if you are still thinking…

What is Social Media??

According to Wikipedia, it is “a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, and that allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content.”

Simply put, it is an interconnection between various individuals, brands using tools that leverage the power of internet to exchange content – text, audio, images, video.

In this post, I list down 4 non-negotiable reasons to get your brand to embrace social media & ace it to multiply your profits.

1. Everyone is using it

Look around, and you’ll find everyone is using one or the other social platform. The kid around you is making a decision about a toy, talking to his friend over Facebook. The friend has just ‘Liked’ a toy or the business beside you just grabbed a client, who they found over Twitter or the local store just announced a deal on your favorite shirt & your neighbor got it, since he had checked-in via Foursquare. Don’t you find either or all of these happening around you.

Stats: 69% of businesses have customer recommendation coming from Facebook and almost 44% through Twitter.

So, it’s imminent that your business needs to adopt social media NOW

2. Customer Service

In a business, there will always be a disgruntled customer. But the best of the businesses survive on quick and better customer service. The first thing the customer does these days when they are unhappy is to let the world know that a product or service sucks. The idea is to listen on social media and provide answer to them ASAP. It helps you to address the customer issue early and avoid the situation from going over the top. Being there, also ensures that your customers will know you’re there to help them which in itself is a great winner.

3. Early Feedback

Most of the businesses I know have been in a situation where they launch a product & due to reasons unknown, the product fails to generate revenue. All the efforts in terms of time and money goes down the drain, since they didn’t get the ‘pulse’ of the market.

Social Media can aid you in doing just that. As a business, you can market your product in a early stage, get it tested by select users, refine the product & then launch. The feedbacks gained from such interacting with various individuals over social media will help you tune the product that is inline with the market dynamics & since the beta users might be already happy, they would help in spreading the word farther than you yourself can.

Stats: I was amongst the early users of Commun.it, which recently did a public launch. Feedbacks from beta users like me helped their team evolve the product & also refine the rough edges. Today, I consider it to be one of the best tool for relationship management on Twitter

4. Branding

Customers use social media for various reasons, and one of the prime reasons could be that they love the brand and would like to tell their followers about it. They would be happy if they can tell about what your brand is about, the products or deals available. You need to be THERE to be able to catch these sentiments. Having a Facebook Page or a Twitter Handle and dishing out information or deals on Foursquare check-in can give your business a big boost. Also, having ads on Facebook or sponsored Tweets can be an additional avenue to generate new business.

All these branding efforts can be provided by broadcasting, listening and engaging over social media. The focus can be on building a community that respects your brand and they become your biggest brand ambassadors.

Now you know why it has come imminent for you to embrace social media. But just like other efforts it does require innovation & consistency and am sure your business will see a definite increase.

Your Turn

If you have already embraced Social Media, let us know what has worked for and against you. And if you’re still contemplating, tell us what you want to do. I believe, each industry vertical needs a different content strategy and there can be no ‘one size fits all’ strategy.

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