Ways,Make,Social,Media,Work,fo marketing 5 Ways to Make Social Media Work for Your Business

Automation technologies represent a fundamental aspect of any modern industry. The major types of industrial automation solutions, such as DCS, PLC, SCADA, and MES, are used on a large-scale in process and discrete industries.DCS technologie Awhile ago, I got an email from one of the "gurus" I follow and it shocked me. The gist of it was this person wanted to trade services for a household item.To say it floored me would be an understatement.What was worse was a few days later t

There seems to be two sides to the using social media for your businessdebate. One side sees the benefits of this innovative medium, whileothers simply see it as a complete waste of time. Whether you’re on oneof these sides already or you’re still debating whether social media isright for your business, here are five ways you can use social media aspart of your overall marketing strategy.Create Your Own Cheerleading SquadNo matter what business you are in, there are members of your fan clubusing social media. In this scenario, your fan club is made up ofcurrent and past customers that simply love your product, service orcompany as a whole. When you create a social media profile about yourbusiness, you’re creating a platform where your fan club can become acheerleading squad. It becomes a form of word-of-mouth advertisingonline. This also allows you to monitor the conversations taking placebetween your cheerleading squad and potential customers. This opens upan opportunity for you to have conversations and build relationshipswith existing and potential customers as well.Be Effectively ReactiveSince social media is a way for you to monitor and take part inconversations about your business, it allows you to effectively reactto problems or to head off problems before they become major issues.For example, 1-800-FLOWERS, through its Facebook Fan Page, was able toresolve ordering problems their customers were having in placing phoneand website orders around the holiday season. By adding ordering to itsFacebook Fan Page, 1-800-FLOWERS was able to respond to its customersneeds before they lost them forever.Hear What Your Customers Are SayingYour customers have a lot to say. When you listen to what they’resaying on your social media platforms, it’s amazing the type ofinformation you can learn. Interacting with customers on social medianetworks has led to the development of new products and services thathave garnered hundreds of millions of dollars in business (for avariety of businesses spread out over various industries). People willtell you what they want and what they need. When you supply a productor service that fills what they need or want or resolves a problem forthem, they’ll buy it up and you’ll make money. It’s similar to having aresearch and development extension of your company without the addedexpense.Disseminate Your Marketing MessagesPlain and simple, social media is one additional avenue ofcommunication for you to disseminate your marketing messages. For thosefollowing you on social media networks that also interact with you inother ways, this is a reaffirmation of your marketing messages. Forthose that are not doing business with you, it’s a way for you tobroaden your reach to audiences that you may not have otherwise had anopportunity to get in front of at all.Build Referral Source RelationshipsFinally, your referral sources or potential referral sources are onsocial media as well. As you’re building up your interaction withcustomers and prospects, you also have a chance to find relatedbusinesses and open up the line of communication with them. This canand does lead to a new stream of business in both directions. Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;mso-style-noshow:yes;mso-style-priority:99;mso-style-qformat:yes;mso-style-parent:"";mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;mso-para-margin:0in;mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;mso-pagination:widow-orphan;font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}About the AuthorCopywriter and marketing consultant, KristieLorette, is passionate about helping entrepreneurs and businesses create copyand marketing pieces that sizzle, motivate, and sell. She is also the author ofAction Marketing: A Step-by-step Guide toLaunch Your Business Marketing Plan. For more information, visit http://wp.me/ptLrh-1