22 Apr Social media: it gets stale fast. Be careful.
It is time to understand the importance of social media and your responsibility to maintain your presence on whatever sites you select. Social media is ultimately special because of its interactive nature. Your clients and prospects can post questions, observations, remarks (both good and bad). Because of this, it is important that you consistently monitor your page. If they ask questions, they want answers. If you had a storefront and a customer walked in, you wouldn’t ignore them would you? Same for social media. Also, each question they ask is not only an opportunity to help them understand how your product or service meets their needs, it is an opportunity to understand features and options that you presently may be overlooking. That can help expand and grow your business and open new target markets.
And that takes us to the part about social media marketing that makes some people a little uneasy. It is not just questions about features and options that can appear on your facebook or twitter feed. It can be remarks, and observations, not all of which are going to be positive. Complaints and bad reviews are also going to pop up. One hopes not frequently but they will appear. These have to be handled directly and promptly. Promptness matters because the longer a negative remark goes unaddressed, the more other prospects will see it and take it into consideration. There has been some research suggesting negative reviews carry more weight than positive ones. These things must be handled directly and straightforwardly. If you can find a resolution to a problem, do it. In many cases the customer may post a follow-up note thanking you. That will be seen by everyone. If you cannot address the problem, be honest about why you cannot meet a certain need. Honesty is always appreciated. The worst thing is ignoring any posts to your social media pages. That is the biggest mistake you can make.