We are living in a social era and the trend is never going to be reversed and it is therefore necessary that our business embraces social media, with all its pluses and minuses.
This is the age of information and we are all drastically altering how we create, disseminate and digest information. To promote our business, we are engaging with the online world through major social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest etc. Difficult to believe but it is said that we generate more than 2.5 quintillion bytes of data. This is a stunning quantum of information.
The internet is largely responsible for enhancing our appetite for information and knowledge and it has accelerated data growth. But social media, in particular, has played a crucial role.
Twitter boasts of 5,600 tweets per second, nearly100 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute, and Facebook handles 4.5 billion “likes” each passing day – amounting to a staggering 500TB of data.
The business houses of today must keep pace with such information explosion, – it would be preferable if businesses stay one step ahead and anticipate future demands and trends.
More than 62% of the online population is currently using social networks, and that figure is projected to rise to 70% in the foreseeable future.
Merely setting up a social media presence will not suffice. You must actively participate, share information, initiate discussions etc.
You must share key information about your company, your brand and tap into customer sentiment about your products and services. Your business should be seen as approachable, accessible and, most importantly, responsive to customer needs.
In the social media, you should keep your ears open and listen to watt others have to say about your brand. Once you begin to listen, you will find many customers expressing positive reviews and a few making negative comments. The purpose of listening is to respond promptly to both positive as well as negative reviews.
To succeed in the social era, you must constantly engage with your prospects and existing customers. Companies that ignore what customers are saying, and fail to pay them the courtesy of acknowledging their voice will, sooner than later, lose sales to competition. The larger your business, the more complex the process of doing business becomes in today’s social era. The one heartening fact is your business can today hire social media marketing experts who will have the experience and expertise for making your business succeed in this social era.