Q: Can social networking sites benefit my business?
Nov 25 2008
Answered by: Chris Lindsay Ask a question
With over 1.3 billion people on the internet globally, social networking sites are a definitely a great way to market your business and in many cases cost nothing.
They can be used in a variety of ways to market businesses and provide opportunities for companies to gain exposure, advertise their products and services, contact and network with potential customers and other businesses, and even recruit people or partners to improve their business aims.
The importance of online communication to a business means that it is immediate and interactive. Companies can use social networking sites to post blogs, podcasts, videos and direct links back to their business sites.
You should see 'How can I spice up my social media marketing campaign?' - by our expert Paul Stallard who talks about social media tools, like blogs, Twitter and Facebook, as a great way to give staff the freedom to become brand advocates. Also, we have a report 'Social media influentual in reputation management' on a study by Convergys which showed that of the 83 per cent of consumer respondents who say they told friends or colleagues of a bad experience, 16 per cent used social media and 8 per cent used texting. Finally, try reading 'Why SMEs need to come to terms with the social networking' by Steve Garnett, EMEA chaiman of salesforce.com, who uses some impressive data to back up his argument:
- 44 per cent of people now use some kind of social media, such as social networks or forums, for customer service purposes
- 34 per cent now email customer service departments in the first instance.
- 52 per cent expect companies to monitor social networks and online forums
- 43 per cent would be impressed by a company that responded to a complaint made via these channels.
Comments [3]