How to Engage Your Customers:

As a business society we are now trying to engage ourselves and our businesses into social media, the question always is...What's Next? You have taken the 1st step by creating your business page on Facebook, or you have created a Twitter account and you wonder how you are supposed to use it to achieve your business goals which 99.99% of the time, to generate sales. 

I see people write questions everyday on LinkedIn such as: How can I get more Twitter followers or Facebook Fans? The idea here being the more followers you have the better chance you have of creating a sale. While sometimes this is true, social media does not necessarily follow this pattern. Whether you have 50 or 50,000 twitter followers, these "tweeters" do not mean very much if you are not engaging with them, answering questions or updating your pages regularly. 

Be wary of any Website who promises to get you 5,000 Facebook friends for just $60/month or some sales pitch like that. Many of these companies use a spam-type program which creates "fake friends" and does not target people that may actually be interested what you have to offer. It can be time-consuming and work intensive to find your loyal followers, but your prospects for business development using social networks will be better for it.

The key in social media is all in the content. If you are creating captivating content that interests your followers or fans, you stand a much better chance of having your company's message shared across social networks (going viral). In turn you have a better chance of finding potential customers that can't wait to hear about a new product that you are launching or read your next blog posting.

If you make it easy for your current customers to contact you on social media, they will be more likely to continue doing business with you and will refer you to their connections. Much like traditional customer service work, social media is an important medium in generating feedback from your customers. Transparency in business practices makes some industries cringe, and social media by its very nature forces businesses to put themselves out in the public eye for scrutiny. Answering questions and concerns out in the open not only pleases the customer with the issues,  but will also promote good will among your fans and potential customers.

Social Media in many ways acts as a tool for PR and customer service in your business. As you get more engaged with your customers and better at creating content, the fruits of your labor will be in full bloom.

More information at Social Media Mid Atlantic