Md Consulting

Excellent article posted by Scott Williams.

Scott started his article by claiming that :

• The World Of Social Media is booming.
• There are over 220 million bloggers, 700 million Facebook users, 175 million Twitter
• Users and 34% of these folks post opinions about products and brands.
• Research shows 78% of consumers trust peer recommendations and only 14% trust advertisements.

I feel this is really amazing.

On-top of that, one of the problem with social media is that many companies don’t have a clear understanding of how to leverage social media for their business.

Here-below, a summary of these 7 Ways Businesses Should Leverage Social Media, explained by Scott Williams

1. Develop A Plan

• Develop a plan that starts with the end result in mind.
• Do you have a desire to promote offers, promotions and coupons?
• Are you going to make Social Media the main communication hub for your customers, how are you co-branding your social media platform with your existing brand.

2. Know Your Voice

• If you are speaking on behalf of your Organization, make sure that you speak from that voice.
•  Businesses tend to confuse or overlap the voice of their personal brand with their business brand.
• An easy solution to make sure your business voice is the one speaking is to ask this question before posting — If my company could tweet or post, would they share this?

3. Be Social

• The most important thing about social media is the social part and not the media.
• If you look @Starbucks Twitter streams, they are always interacting with customers and people.
• Be Social, Be Accessible, Be Social, Be Relevant, Be Social, Be Authentic, Be Social, Be Real, Be Social, Be about Your Brand, Be Social, Be Entertaining, Be Social and did I mention BE SOCIAL!
• 78% of customers trust peer recommendations drives home the importance of being social.
• People are more likely to trust and promote brands they feel connected to. Be Social!

4. Make A Name For Yourself

• Make sure that your Twitter and Facebook names are simple, easy to remember and relevant to your company
• Make a name for your company by being active in the world of social media.
• Familiarizing yourself with the 111 Twitter Tools will help you to become efficient at making a name for yourself.

5. Make Your Profile Work

• Make sure your Twitter and Facebook profile represent your company.
• If your business is a coffee shop be sure to have your logo as your profile pic and not your personal glamour shot.
• Check out my 6 Ways To Make Your Twitter Profile Work.

6. Have a Primary Social Media Application

• The cool thing about the success of Twitter is that Facebook and Twitter have become kissing cousins.
• There are many applications that automate the connection of the two platforms.
• It is great for a business to encourage their customers to connect with them on multiple Social Media medians; however having one or the other as a primary helps with clarity.

7. Make It Fun

• No matter the strategy you choose, make it fun for your customers.
• Fun, engaging, enlightening… should be the words your customers use to describe your social media presence.
• This isn’t necesarrily “crack jokes” fun, but it’s definitely not blah blah blah boring.