Monday, October 17, 2011

Making Time for Social Media

Greetings my fellow social media gods and goddess…. Are you ready for another adventure into the world of social media???  So grab your bags and hop on board the social media express as we explore the land of time and social media. 

The one thing I hear most often is “I do not have time” in reference to using social media to market ones business. I use to think the same thing until I understood the power of using social media. So lets’ explore a different approach to this topic.

Many blogs have posts on the subject that share with you short cuts and resources that will help you post and monitor your social media resources. However, that is not the issue when one thinks they do not have the time to use social media. The real issue is not seeing the value, the power, the effectiveness of social media marketing and therefore not wanting to take the time to use these resources.

We all know we make time for what we perceive as important to us. We make time to network, to follow up on leads and referrals, to follow up with current clients/customers and all the other things we do to gain and keep clients/customers. Why, because we feel these things are effective. They are business practices that gain results. The same can be said for social media marketing when it is added into your normal routine of doing business.
Social Media is about building relationships and inviting conversations. If you have a facebook business page you now notice the insights now track your”reach” and people “talking about” your page. This is to show you the impact your posts are having. Why, because it is all about relationships and conversations. When approaching using social media this is the mindset needed. 

How important is it to you to keep your current clients engaged? How important is it to you to inform and educate your current and potential clients? It is not possible to personally do this through phone calls and emails. It is possible to have a greater reach, a greater impact through social media. 

Here is an example of how this can work for you. Say you are networking, you meet a potential client and you schedule a meeting. In that meeting you both talk about what you both offer and how you can help each other. So after the meeting what do you do? How do you keep in contact with them? How do you foster that relationship? This is where social media can help you. You can friend them, follow them, link with them and they can do likewise. You can comment on their posts and they can do likewise. You can further the relationship through staying connected through social media. 

Another way social media can work for you is, say that you have a great promotion that you know your customers would love? How do you let them know about it? Do you personally call each and every one of them? Do you place a coupon in the local paper? Social media will allow you to have a greater reach in getting known so that your promotion has a greater impact. Why? Because you current customers have the opportunity to share your promotion with their friends easily and quickly by one click a button.   
  
Are you beginning to see how Social Media can work for you and how easily it is to make time for using this powerful resource? 

If you have a success story you would like to share please feel free to leave a comment about how social media marketing has improved your business.

So my fellow gods and goddess until our next adventure….Happy Posting!
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