Five Truths About Social Media For Business

Following is a guest post from my good friend Tanveer Naseer, who spends his days working with small businesses to develop new strategies for growth and development.

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For those expecting a cookie-cutter, step-by-step guide, I’m sorry to say you’re out of luck.  But what I will share with you right now is the most important thing you should know about using social media to help your business.  I hope you sharpened those pencils to write this gem down because here it is:

It’s not about making the sale; it’s about building the relationship.

Yes, I know, this seems counter-intuitive; after all, the biggest reason why companies would want to get involved on any of these social media sites is in order to get more people to buy their products or services.  But there’s something that we need to understand here before we proceed further – unlike eBay or Amazon, users are not using these sites because they are looking for something to buy.  Instead, people view these sites as a place to create and nurture connections.

So, how can fostering a presence on social media sites help your business?  Well, first we need to understand the goal here is not to develop yet another metric to measure.  Instead, what companies can gain from being active participants in social media is gaining insights about your target audience, of what they’re doing, why they’re doing it and how your products/services can fit into those experiences.

Also, creating a social media presence for your company sends the signal to your customers that you’re interest in them doesn’t stop after you make the sale; rather, you’re interested in what happens after the sale is made and how you can build on or improve the experiences they had with your company.

With that in mind, I want to offer the following points businesses should consider when starting a presence on social media sites:

1. As the Boy Scouts say, be prepared

When taking on a new initiative, there’s always a clear objective or goal that we have in mind and this is exactly what needs to be thought out before getting involved in social media.  It’s not enough to simply be online because that’s where your customers are; you need to have an idea of what your goal is and how your presence on these sites will help you achieve that goal.  This will also provide direction on what kind of interactions you’d be interested in fostering, as well as what kind of information you feel is important to share.

2. Remember it’s a first date; so don’t make it all about you

As we all know, part of the goal of a first date is getting to know the other person – what are their likes/dislikes, what’s their favourite colour, do they enjoy watching five hours of collegial football, and other key details.  Well, the same approach applies to social media.  In other words, don’t be the date that spends the whole night talking about themselves, but instead remember that this is an opportunity to learn more about the other person.

This is one of the most important things businesses should do when they first start getting involved in social media – simply listening to what your customers are saying.  And by that, I don’t mean focusing only on what’s being said about your product or service; instead, try to get a more full view of your customers by paying attention to what they want, what they’re interested in, and what problems are they trying to solve.  This can provide you with some invaluable insight into what your customers’ needs are and how your products/services might be able to address those needs now or in the future.

3. Hey, who’s driving this bus?

Obviously, one big concern for businesses in creating an online presence on social media sites is the lack of control over what’s being said about their company, its products and/or services.  And yet, the simple truth is that not being active on these sites won’t stop your customers from talking about your company; it just means you’re not interested in hearing what they have to say.

On the other hand, by allowing your customers to drive the conversations and focus, you can bring a sense of humanity to your brand.  It shows your customers that you have a vested interest in knowing both how they use your products/services and what issues they might encounter which you can address in future improvements/additions.

4. Kids, don’t make me come back there

This leads us to the next concern most businesses face when they consider starting a presence on social media sites and that is being afraid of what your employees might say in public.  This attitude reminds me a lot of that typical comment exasperated dads make on those day-long road trips when the kids in the backseat start acting up out of boredom (okay, maybe these days it’s less of an issue thanks to DVD systems and Nintendo DS, but you get the idea).

What companies need to remember is that your employees are not kids, they’re adults and should be entrusted to know what not to share on behalf of the company.  Again, if you’re going into this with a goal in mind, it becomes pretty clear what you should share and what you should avoid based on what will help you achieve that target.  Besides, as recent examples have shown, it’s not so much making mistakes in public that can damage a company’s reputation, but how a business responds to it.

5. Okay, so how much is this going to cost me?

Cost is something many people use as a reason for why businesses should be on Twitter or Facebook; that given the fact that it’s free, there’s really no reason for businesses or individuals to not participate on these sites.  While they are right that you don’t have to pay to use these sites (at least so far), there is nonetheless a cost and a rather expensive one – time.

While businesses are very mindful of taking on projects that can impact their bottom line, the fact is that how much time we need to allocate to taking on a new initiative is equally important and vital to consider before moving ahead.  And make no mistake about it, social media sites like Twitter can become real time sucks.  That is if you go into them without a solid action plan detailing what objectives you hope to accomplish in being on these sites, which brings us back to the first point I mentioned above.

Of course, we have to remember that social media sites should not be the end-all/be-all for your company’s presence on the web.  It’s still important that you maintain and develop your own site, especially so that when people eventually migrate to the next “big thing” in social media, you don’t lose the connections you’ve already made since your audience will know where they can connect up with you and continue to build on those relationships.

There’s a lot of discussion under way these days of how companies can measure the success of their efforts to participate in these social media outlets.  By remembering that the key here is to develop relationships by allowing your customers to lead the conversations, companies will stand a better chance of getting an accurate impression of just how successful they have been in their efforts to incorporate social media ventures in their business interactions.

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Tanveer Naseer is a business coach who works with small businesses and entrepreneurs to develop new strategies for growth and development. You can read his writings on leadership and workplace interactions on his blog.