By Sandra Collins

This blog is about social media.

 

In a prior post, I wrote about how to start using social media for your business. The key takeaway was that when you are strategizing how to participate in social media, it’s most effective to know where and how your customers and prospects want to connect with you.

As I wrote in the prior post, social media is a communication channel that supplements the locations where you share your core content. In and of itself, it generates very few sales leads that turn into customers. It does, however, help prospects and customers get to know you, like you, and trust you, which for most businesses is a critical phase of the buying cycle.

When strategizing how you’ll participate, first consider how you currently find those who become your future customers. (These work in combination with each other.)

• If your business usually requires in-person interaction, or consultative involvement, there isn’t going to be a replacement for that. However, if your customers and prospects are using social media, finding you there can help them feel more connected with you and your business.

• If buying your products/services isn’t complex and your website (or wherever you provide your core content) generates interest for you and helps your prospects to understand how to do business with you, social media can augment that and help your prospects feel more comfortable with you as a supplier.

• If your products/services are more complex, or if there is an expectation that you as a supplier will have specialized knowledge, using social media will help others to see your expertise. Answering questions and contributing to conversations, or publishing helpful content that seeks to connect with others, can help you get noticed.

Second, be aware that in all cases, the trend is also to help customers and prospects get to know you better on a personal level. Even if you’re in business-to-business, the people making decisions are still people and want to relate to you on that level. They appreciate it when you’re helpful and friendly. They like to feel connected with you as someone who genuinely cares about customers and not someone who just wants to sell them something. Transparency is valued. They want to know your stories: how you got into business, how you do things, your experiences, the experiences others have had. The younger your target market is, the more important this is to them.

Third, when contributing to social media, consider these questions:

• Where would your customers and prospects expect to find you? Do they actively develop and interact with their networks and professional groups on LinkedIn? Are they on Facebook and want to have more friendly interaction with you or see your personal side? Do they get their news and updates real time from Twitter and would they follow you to hear about the latest? In any/all cases, the social networks that are important to them are where they would expect to find you, too.

• What do your customers and prospects want to know? What helpful tips and information can you offer them or how can you make understanding your products or services easier? Can you help them with ideas on how to use your products/services more effectively? Can you help them better understand the benefits? Can you help them to know you better as a person and as a professional? What stories can you share with them to help them know you? Read more about types of content you can post.

When strategizing how you’ll use social media, limit the number of platforms (methods) you use. It’s better to focus on a couple than to spread yourself too thin trying to be everywhere. It’s much more effective to post consistently on one platform than to post once a month on a bunch of them.

Lastly, if your target market isn’t particularly interested in social media, I’d still find a way to get in front of them occasionally, to help them keep you in mind if they are going to buy in the future or have an opportunity to recommend your services. I’ll write more about that in an upcoming blog. In the meantime, keep in mind that as time goes by your prospects will increasingly be from the generations of folks to whom social media is as natural as breathing, and it will be vital for you to connect with them there.