Social media is an excellent marketing opportunity that small businesses should use to enhance their competitive advantages by adding value to their business, improving their customer service and boosting their market awareness. Taking advantage of these powerful engines can allow companies to attract customers from different segments, competing at the same level with huge corporations for market share and brand recognition. Social media is a powerful market research tool that enables marketers to get the right information about the customer needs and wants in order to achieve customer satisfaction.
Even though the most important function of using social networks for business purpose is to interact with clients, companies are getting new customers through its use, according to a recent study that explore the role of social media in customer acquisition, indicates that almost one-half of small businesses are successfully connecting with prospects through social networks.
Zappos, the online retailer, is a great example of how a company can take advantage of this resource, the aggressive use of social media has been a key factor of its success, the amazing way in which it uses social media by talking to their customers and prioritizing customer service has turned this once small company into a billion dollar business.
However to succeed every company must applied its own strategy when using social media to promote its business. It is important to establish policies, rules and regulations in order to share the right information and handle specific situations to protect the company for brand damages. Moreover because the content cannot be fully controlled companies should be prepared to deal with negative feedback and its appropriate response. Finally every small business should adapt and personalize the use of these social interactions because the benefits definitely outweigh the risks.
Yes Laura,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that social network is a place to be for a small business correct and innovative marketing’s strategy. Establish polices, rules and regulations before enter in this “new world” is fundamental for me too. This because I have directly tested that online social media are a wonderful possibility to communicate for a small business, but is it a new arena and you can’t enter in a new arena without be prepared. And to be prepared you have first of all protect yourself from the bad things could happen. Social media are a new game to play with dissimilar rules compare to other kind of marketing’s tolls, and you get to understand the rules before playing. But I agree with you that it is a game where small businesses have to be part and where they have more to earn than to lose. In my blog (http://marketingsquare2011.blogspot.com/2010/11/respect-game-respect-rules-online.html) I suggest some steps that small business should consider before entering in online social media marketing strategy. Give a look and let me know what you think about.
Lorenzo
Yes Laura,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that social network is a place to be for a small business correct and innovative marketing’s strategy. Establish polices, rules and regulations before enter in this “new world” is fundamental for me too. This because I have directly tested that online social media are a wonderful possibility to communicate for a small business, but is it a new arena and you can’t enter in a new arena without be prepared. And to be prepared you have first of all protect yourself from the bad things could happen. Social media are a new game to play with dissimilar rules compare to other kind of marketing’s tolls, and you get to understand the rules before playing. But I agree with you that it is a game where small businesses have to be part and where they have more to earn than to lose. In my blog (http://marketingsquare2011.blogspot.com/2010/11/respect-game-respect-rules-online.html) I suggest some steps that small business should consider before entering in online social media marketing strategy. Give a look and let me know what you think about.
Lorenzo
The first step for any business must be to establish a clear strategy and an adequate privacy policy for its Social Media Site. As you said, Social Media is an excellent marketing tool at low cost (sometimes free) for any company. The opportunity to interact with potential customers worldwide is priceless and if you know you play your cards right, it is almost sure that you will obtain productive results. In this link you will find more information about the advantages of using Social Networks for business purposes.
ReplyDeleteSocial media is definitely a big opportunity for small businesses, but as you mentioned, to succeed every company must applied its own strategy when using social media to promote its business because social media is not for every single small business. For example, a pop and mom store, maybe they dont even know how to best utilize social media. Their customers may not even get access to social media. Their business may be too small to contribute certain time and money to do online marketing. For them, mouth to mouth marketing may be is the best way.
ReplyDeleteI like you said that each company should establish policies, rules and regulations in order to share the right information and handle specific situations to protect the company for brand damages. It is so hard to build a great brand image, but it is so easy to destroy one.
Where I really appreciate social media's impact on businesses is during the inception phase of startup businesses. The ability to spread the word about a newly business idea underworks by simply creating a facebook page or blogging or tweeting about it for little to no costs, but time and creativity is priceless. It can be of great value to businesses, the extent to which social media can help create and quantify potential customer's interests and opinions and using those as feedbacks in addressing their business strategy. The fact is that implementing social media as a successful marketing medium can be costly, time consuming, and should be handled by professionals. Visit my blog post for additional information.
ReplyDeleteThere are great success stories like Zappos.com CEO Tony Hsieh, using social media tools like twitter and facebook to promote growth for his shoe company. But I bet other companies that have had their reputation tarnished significantly through social media did not have the foresight to expect worst case scenarios. So I applaud you mentioning that companies, in order to minimize the risks of brand damages should abide by their own policies, rules, and regulations. But honestly, how do you curb such disasters? Should they publicly state that if a customer is dissatisfied with service or product, they can be entitled to claims, rewards, or special promotions in order to avoid damage to their brand? Perhaps, should there be a tolerance level set then? This is my biggest gripe with social media. It is a world of uncertainty. Whatever you post online in permanent; good or bad.
In my opinion, social media and social networking as you previously mentioned most definitely present a cornucopia of opportunities to small business and their chance to grow in a global market place that in technology driven. Companies such as Coca Cola and Nike have utilized social networking sites in order to reach their customers in new innovative ways. For example, these companies' clients can follow them in sites like Facebook, and leave comments and suggestions about their products. This provides a brand new way in which companies and their customer's interact, and this is helping us move towards a market that is more and more customer driven, in which the customer's opinion and specifications can shape the success of a company.
ReplyDelete