Social media is not just about marketing, it is about building a trustworthy relationship with people you can connect on an emotional level.
On a personal level, I have always believed in my social circle and the strength it has in my day to day choices in life. From the time we are young kids through our teens to our adulthood, our social circle has a very big impact on what and how we choose our products and services. I took it one step further when I bought my current home 8 years ago. There were 7 friends who were buying a home in the neighborhood and during a casual dinner party on Friday evening they convinced us to buy a home in the neighborhood. On Saturday morning, we signed the paperwork for building a new home in the neighborhood. This is the impact that your social circle (word of mouth) has on you.
When I need a book, a pair of shoes or a vacation plan, I trust my social circle with their experiences with due diligence.
Taking it a step further, how do you allow Social Media to impact your business? I loved reading this awesome book “Likeable Social Media by Dave Kerpen“. Dave Kerpen rocks, loved his easy writing style. I started reading the book and found it very insightful. If you have not read it, I highly recommend you to do so – even more if you are in business or sales. He follows a lot of the rules that great leaders like Dale Carnegie and Stephen Covey have specified in their book but gives the twist of social media in it.
Popular social media tools and what to use when

• Use Facebook to reach to many users including friends, family and others
• Use LinkedIn to target professionals only
• Use twitter to target folks based on their actual needs they have shared

What can social media do and not do?

• Social media cannot make up for a bad product, company or organization. It will help identify bad products, people or processes.
• Social media won’t lead to overnight sale success. It will help in building relationships with people
• Social media is not free – it takes time and/or money

How and what are some important factors of social media?

• Facebook, Youtube, LinkedIn, Foursquare have added their own functionality to allow users to express their approval of content. Twitter has a favorite button that allows users to approve specific tweets.
• Be immediately responsive to your customer, show a positive attitude to your competitor’s customers
• Listen, acknowledge and respond to your customer
• Word of mouth marketing is best, purest and efficient form of marketing
• As a company, listen carefully, be transparent, be responsive, be authentic and tell great stories. This will make your organization a likeable one on social networks.
• Facebook’s like button is a very strong weapon to be used by your business, on your website. It is not the number of like’s your company has, but a personal recommendation from a friend or trusted source that matters to your customer
• Tap into conversations by listening, engaging and empowering. Be a smart and flexible listener

More to come in the next post.