Social media – The clue is in the title

First run as a guest blog for www.mediademon.com I wanted to share it all with you here 🙂

I speak to so many people who are not seeing or finding the benefits in Social Media, my question is always “How many people are you talking to?”, this usually results in either a blank stare or a response along the lines of “oh I haven’t got time for that”.

With Social Media the clue is in the title….. SOCIAL! The reason social media is different to other media and marketing functions is the accessibility of your customers or potential customers, and the acceptance that you may speak to them or they may speak to you!

A model I came across early on when working with social media is as simple as this. Build, Engage, and Amplify. If you’re a business who currently is not seeing Social Media as a worthwhile activity for your business to be spending their time on consider these points.

Build:

This links to building your followers, likers or connections on whichever network is effective for your business. To do this think of the value you can give them and how you can inform people you are on these networks. How are you promoting your social media accounts.

Engage:

Yep you guessed it … chat to your connections, followers or likers, share their information, thank them for sharing your information or connecting, ask for their opinion, viewpoint or give them a call to action and make sure you remember those manners we were all brought up with so well, why would online be any different?

Amplify:

Then, when you’ve built up a relationship or someone takes an interest in you and your business take it off social media. Meet them for a good old English cup of tea or have a phone chat about how you both are. Utilise your online relationship when you meet with someone face to face and continue the discussions you’ve been having.

Social Media works for those businesses who use it for its intention – Communication. Facebook and Twitter especially were not created for businesses but for people to communicate with each other – consider this if you’re a business who solely broadcasts product and service information and never spends any time chatting. When you do, the results will be seen. Remember, the clue is in the title!!!

And on that note please let me know your thoughts on this blog, connect and get chatting. I look forward to hearing from you.”