Wyoming Entrepreneur Blog

Why Use Social Media?

Increasingly, many consumers are using social media channels like Facebook and Twitter to discuss companies, products and experiences with their friends and peers.  Monitoring what people say about your company, your service and your products is an excellent way to find out what you’re doing right or wrong. 

Consumers are also using these sites to research buying decisions.  If you are being discussed, it’s probably a good idea if you are part of the discussion.  A recent survey by ROI Research asked social network users the reasons they use social media to discuss products and services.  The table below shows some of the results:

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The study points out that when consumer voice complaints using social media channels, they tend to be in the areas of household products, telecommunications and healthcare.  Sports-related brands, magazines and newspapers and alcoholic beverages tend to receive relatively low levels of complaints. 
Would you refuse to discuss your products and services with a customer who came into your store?  If the answer is “yes”, then social media is probably not for you.  However, if you refuse to talk to your customers when they are trying to tell you what they like and dislike, then you may find it very challenging to be successful.  However, if you are interested in understanding how your and your products or services are perceived by the people who pay your bills, then social media can be a valuable tool and a way to connect with your customers.

No matter the industry, your customers are using social media and the web to research and discuss you.  If you want to be part of the discussion, you have to enter the conversation.

What have been your experiences with social media and your business?

With All of the Abilities of Social Media Are Websites Necessary?

Social media has exploded over the past several years.  In a listing dated August 17, 2011 showing the most popular websites, Facebook at number two is only topped by Google.  YouTube is third, Twitter ninth, Linkedin is 13th and WordPress 18th.  I’m pretty sure that our WyEn.biz isn’t in the top 1,000 and I guess that yours is not either.  So why maintain a website in the face of the barrage of social media?

The reason is simple.  Handling all of the options available to market your business on-line is a huge challenge.  Customers are faced with an absolute deluge of information and data, and if you want to help them, they need a central location to go to act on the interest that all of the social media efforts you may be doing has generated.  Social media is changing rapidly and social media sites come and go.  Your website can be a source of stability for both you and your customers.  Your website is where customers go when they want to get detailed information about your products and services.

Another reason to maintain your site is that YOU control the content.  Social media by its very nature is uncontrolled and you can present the story you want customers to read and address any problems on your terms.  This doesn’t mean that people won’t look you up and confirm your information on social media sites, but it does mean that in at least one area you can manage the discussion.
A final reason to keep your website is to avoid limitations.  Facebook, Linkedin and MySpace can all have e-commerce tools added in.  However, these tend to be limited in terms of layouts, size and content.  With your website, you can tell your story your way and be much more creative and unique.

In today’s world social media is a vital part of the marketing mix for any business, but don’t neglect your homebase – your website!

Are you using social media in conjunction with your website?  Have you decided to eliminate your website altogether?  If so how is it working?

Think Carefully When You Speak – You Might Be Offending a Customer

I had just finished a presentation where I was discussing the importance of marketing plans and planning to an audience of folks from the non-profit world.  I thought the presentation went well and there was lively discussion at the end.  All-in-all, I was thinking that this was a pretty successful day’s work.

As I was packing up two ladies from the audience, one of whom had participated in the discussion, came up to me.  They were somewhat hesitant, but then jumped in to tell me that some of my verbiage during my discussion was felt to be very offensive by some of the people in the room.

I was more than a little stunned.  I am an experienced public speaker and I strive to never use offensive language.  I apologized and indicated that being offensive was certainly not my intention and I asked what I said that was out of line.  The response was that when I was giving examples about understanding your customers and their demographics I said something along the order of “if your audience is left-handed, red-haired stepchildren, you should try to find out how many people meeting that criteria are in your service area.” In this case and for this audience a verbal crutch that I had relied upon for many years and which was intended to put across a simple point…that you need to know your customer was offensive. 

When I returned to the office, I went through a couple of stages of further reflection.  The first was “what the heck, don’t they understand I wasn’t meaning to offend anyone?  After all I’m a nice guy and I mean well!”.  This led quickly to thinking about times when what others have said that hit my “hot buttons”.  I realized what I think is an important lesson.

When you are trying to communicate an idea or concept, or if you are trying to sell a person on an idea, concept or product, why take the chance that you will make that person shut down and stop listening because a phrase or term you use is offensive to them? 

 

My “red-haired stepchild” seemed inoffensive to me, but one of the nice ladies who brought this up said to me “I’m sure you had some good things to say, but I shut you out once you had offended me”.   This is valuable information and I’m pretty sure that I won’t use anything red-haired as an example in the future.  (Left –handed Martians anyone?)

In today’s complex and changing world it may be impossible to always avoid any offensive, but I think that we owe it to ourselves, to our businesses and to our customers to try.  After all, an opportunity missed because of offense given is an opportunity that may not come around again.  Remember, each time you talk to a customer might be the last time if you don’t work at making it a pleasant experience.

Has this ever happened to you?  How did you handle the critique?