Businesses Need To Know About Social Media

I just finished reading an article called Why Businesses Need Social Media Experts and it had me nodding, agreeing with the author of the post. The author takes on a story that was written in the Business Insider about the waste of having a so-called “Social Media Expert” on staff. Like the author points out, there is great importance to having someone on staff or an agency you can turn to that understands the importance of social media. This doesn’t mean you need to hire an in-house “Social Media Expert”.

Social media encapsulates far too much to define and a term that changes meaning on a daily basis, but that’s why it is important to have people you can turn to that keep up with these iterations and understand how to incorporate them with your existing business, marketing, and advertising practices. Businesses need to know about social media, how it works, and how it can work in their advantage.

I’ve always said that over 90% of businesses who use Twitter and Facebook use it incorrectly—cramming deals down the throats of their consumers and promoting their own company when they should be engaging their customers. This is exactly how you quickly alienate existing customers and your future customers will never be. The internet is more transparent than ever.

Social network sites like Facebook and Twitter are built around the idea of community and multi-communication. When businesses don’t use these services for customer care and support, they’re better off not using them at all. Customers and clients want to be heard. Calling a company for customer service and being placed on hold for 45 minutes is something someone no one likes. Alienating your customer on the web by not listening is the equivalent to putting someone on hold but in a public environment—everyone notices. Do that and you can bet that customer is exploring an alternative service, vendor, business, or product. By neglecting the inherent ease of using social tools to provide care, support, and feedback to your customers, you’re better off-putting them away in their toolbox before you do even more damage to your brand.

[via: Next Impulse Media]