Like it or not social media is here to stay. Most companies have a Facebook page and most Tweet daily. It is a personal way to connect with customers. Customers have multiple ways to be involved with company promotions, suggestions and complaints. Companies have a way of putting their brand in front of their customers on a daily basis. We all love social media for the convenience, opportunity, and the interaction with friends, clients and family. It can be the fastest way to spread word of mouth advertising. Yet, the only way to be successful in the area of social media is to keep up on it daily. In a world where everything is at your fingertips clients and customers expect to have answers and information immediately.
Do you have a Facebook page for your business or blog? Do you Tweet? Maybe you do both. How much of your valuable time is being taken up by updating your social media and creating an online presence on your social media sites? It is not enough to simply update your status. You have to respond to questions, “like” responses by customers, and respond on other pages. You need to give “shout outs” to colleagues from time to time. Just reading through your homepage can take up valuable time. Of course you want to be personal in all your social media so robotic updates or constant self promotions will lose you respect and followers. So what do you do?
If you are finding that social media is sucking time away from other projects then it may be time to consider outsourcing your social media or condensing it. After all, you cannot conduct all your business through Facebook if you sell widgets. At some point you need to build and ship your widgets and respond to customers outside of the internet. Everything is a balance when it comes to customer service and building your company. Solution? Try a site like HootSuite which will update several accounts at simultaneously. Or you can hire a social media expert to keep your social media sites maintained. There are plenty of social media mavens and experts in the field to help take that weight off your shoulders. Can’t afford it? My social media expert is my 13 year old daughter. It is all I can afford right now and it is giving her training in the social media. While, she does not have the mastery skill as professional social media experts she is a great help keeping up an online presence. Time is valuable and any way you can save it will benefit your business.