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.jpg) I admit to having been skeptical about social media and its relevance to building a business. That is until two of the most important business contacts I made over this past year were directly because of social media. In one case, it was a matter of reconnecting with someone I had worked with in the past, and in the other it was a situation of good timing and the great reach of the Internet.
The platforms may be relatively new, but we are still talking about “Business 101.” Your business needs customers. Twitter, for example, makes it easy for your business to be found or discovered by potential clients. Another aspect of being found is the person that is found first stands the best percentage chance of getting the customer.
It may not matter that you are more qualified than the other competitor in your market. If people find the other person first, you may lose the opportunity. Social media can be a great tool for augmenting your presence and enabling you and your business to be discovered by potential customers.
There is a new generation of people seeking services and products that were never exposed to the “social norms” and conventions for reaching out that many of us take for granted. Many young people today will never know what a phonebook is. They will, however, be very quick to understand what your business is made of, because they readily access third-party information about your business via social media or consumer feedback platforms that connect people and give them a forum.
Social media offers another important avenue to reaching customers. It offers the chance to share a side of the business or the dreams behind it that let people know more of what you stand for, and just who the real people in the business are. You can tell your story on a more personal level, than traditional media outreach.
That said, this opportunity cuts both ways – the informality of the media should never cloud your judgment about what is appropriate to put into the “electronic town square” that is the Web. Courtesy, respect and the Golden Rule are ever so important now that it is even easier to cross certain boundaries than it was in the past.To promote your business, it is worth thinking through what the core truth is that people will remember about your presence and communication.
Something relevant, something meaningful and something different in a positive way will get noticed. Anything else will be treated as noise – people might listen for a while, but will tend to treat you less seriously. So think through how you can engage, entertain and educate possible customers. If you do this in a way that is fun, real and easy to understand, you will leverage the media to its highest benefit for you and your business.
John Ossa is the national accounts director at Irrigation Water Technologies America and owns Irrigation Essentials. Mail jossa@giemedia.com.
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