Social media has become such an important part of people’s lives to the extent that getting through a day without checking your Facebook or Twitter accounts is nearly an impossibility. We use messaging, status updates and “tweets” to stay connected with family, friends and fans around the world, and even the smallest bit of information can spread instantly from posting to posting.
Businesses are also taking advantage of social media’s ability to reach people quickly and effectively, exploring the benefits of having a solid, visible presence online. Whether you are an individual businessman or woman looking to expand your network or a small business owner promoting your services or products, using social media to reach new clients, make new connections and stay in people’s thoughts is very important.
Why Businesses use Social Media
One of the main reasons why businesses have embraced social media so wholeheartedly is that you invest very little, if any, money into it. Setting up a blog, for example, costs very little, as do investments in having SEO keywords placed or banner ads inserted into your page. Other social media tools, such as Facebook or Twitter, cost nothing to use. The main investment you will make when utilizing social media is the time spent building and maintaining a presence online.
Social media is really a large forum for word-of-mouth marketing. Current and prospective customers spend a lot of time online, especially using social media, and when they are online they talk about everything, including your products or services. If you are a small business trying to generate attention and draw in more clients or customers, having the opportunity to respond to positive feedback for your brand is incredibly valuable. Even negative reviews or feedback from dissatisfied customers can be an opportunity to win new customers when you address their concerns. Social media allows others to see how you deal with customer service issues of any kind.
Social Media Tools: Twitter
Twitter has become an extremely successful and powerful social media tool in a relatively short span of time. Utilizing small messages of 140 characters or less, Twitter allows users to communicate quickly and easily and share links to all sorts of web content, pictures and videos. When you use Twitter, you subscribe to other users’ accounts, an act called “following”, and other people can in turn follow your account. Twitter allows you to easily read other posters’ “tweets”, reply to them and share them or retweet.
Twitter has become an invaluable tool for the modern business, allowing you to update followers on product debuts and changes and alert them to special deals instantly. Twitter has also become a way for businesses and individuals to manage their company and personal profiles first-hand. Building an online profile, such as the Twitter profile of Mr. Corallo, not only improves exposure to a worldwide following of people but also facilitates a kind of reputation management, allowing you to instantly respond to questions and correct misinformation.
Social media tools have become the latest innovative way to make your business run more effectively, reach more people and create lasting connections that will produce new clients and customers, making it one of the most important tools for a business of any size.