Social media for business is great for letting your consumers engage with your brand in a light setting. However, business owners are afraid to try out this new marketing medium. They don’t know how to start. Basically, they have no idea how social media for business works and all its intricacies.

Why is social media good for business?

Three out of four people feel that their firm is overdue when it comes to using social media. Many companies still ban the use of Facebook and Twitter in workspaces. Why are these companies scared?

Some, including Porsche, are scared of industrial spying. Companies are also afraid their employees will find other jobs they will like better.

Despite many companies discouraging social media use in the workplace, its benefits outweigh the negatives when effectively incorporated in the office. (Image: linkedmediagrp (CC) via Flickr)

However, these companies should realize that using social media in the office is beneficial, and overshadows the negatives.

About half of United States employers keep their employees from using social media websites. There are quite a lot of reasons why they shouldn’t do this. Silkroad presents the following keywords that show why social is good for business: Morale, Reputation, Communication, Free Advertising, Collaboration, Social research, Skill building, Transparency, Good PR, and Networking.

Managements that use social media have the following objectives: Innovation, Alignment and Engagement. Employees that collaborate can come up with innovative ideas. Social media also allows employers to be aligned with the goals and priorities of the organization, and ensures that employees socialize and engage themselves into the culture of the company.

Strategies in Using Social Media for Business

To know more about social media and how it can be used for business effectively, study the following strategies employed by e-business websites.

1. Use YouTube playlists.

YouTube has a playlist feature, which is often neglected but can definitely be used to bring traffic to your e-business website.
In particular, YouTube playlists play sequentially on your YouTube channel, keeping visitors in for longer. Visitors can then see most of your products and spot those they are interested in, increasing sales.

A good example is Vat19, a company that sells a variety of products and has a far-reaching presence in social media in general. It uses Playlists effectively to generate over 115 million views in its YouTube channel.

2. Make Users Feel They Own Your Products

Make visitors feel that they own something about your products. If you can do so, then both social promotion and brand loyalty will increase.

A good example is Free People, a clothing retailer. The company allows customers to make their own collections of clothes that they can share on Pinterest, Google+, Twitter and Facebook. They start at the main shopping page, where they choose items to create their personal “look book” style collections. Users can explore your collection and even vote.

Free People engages users by allowing them to create collections of clothes they like and share them to other users. (Image: via storeappeal.com)

Look for ways for your customers to be able to think of your products as their own. That means going beyond the social sharing tools that most companies employ but limit themselves into.

3. Guiding Users Using Facebook Apps

You can use Facebook Apps to improve fan engagement and deal with the fact that there are no default landing tabs in Facebook pages.
For example, you can use a custom app to let users take a quiz once they agree to access the app. This quiz is all about finding what specific items users would like to purchase. Once they complete the quiz, they are directed to specific pages in your website that contain relevant info about the items they want.

This method eliminates tire kicking, which urbandictionary.com defines as “someone who is indecisive about purchasing a product or service, and never feels satisfied with what they are offered. In the end a tire kicker may or may not buy.”

A good example of a company that uses this strategy is ShoeDazzle, with its custom Style Profile application. Facebook visitors are driven immediately to the website page showing products that they are most likely to purchase.

Social media users are more engaging compared to traditional websites. They aren’t as worried that their personal information is being sold to other companies for targeting purposes. Use this advantage by using interactive apps, making viewers out of buyers, and increasing ROI.

4. Develop the Right Communication on Twitter

ThinkGeek uses a conversational style to engage with its Twitter followers. (Image: via wired.com)

Use Twitter effectively by responding to tweets immediately and engaging in a conversational style. That way, social engagement is maximized. Furthermore, brand loyalty is increased and company tweets are shared among followers and even non-followers.

Social media engagement increases when you use the language of your audience. Users of social networking sites are particularly sensitive to fake interactions. The suitable language and tone must always be used when conversing with followers.

ThinkGeek is a great example of this strategy. Because of its instant Twitter responses and conversational style, this small but emerging firm has over 500,000 followers.

5. Use social media integration

Some businesses, such as those selling clothing and shoes, can take advantage of the fact that users find it quite easy to socially interact with others interested in such brands. Therefore, social networking apps are natural for these companies.

However, companies that may not have the same edge can still use social media integration. Try to diversify the social media outline of your business, and use methods to highly engage your customers.

A good example is Cree, a LED lighting company. For a company that sells lighting, one would think that its orientation can’t possible lean towards social media. However, it is successful in using its presence in Twitter and Facebook to enhance its social presence, including organizing competitions for users to submit lighting photos to earn free products.

Conclusion

Social Media for business is extensive, but it is not yet mainstream technology. On the other hand, many companies are already ready to use social technology to drive innovation, share work-related content, hire and recruit, and create learning platforms.

About Neal Alfie Lasta

I enjoy learning and writing about social media and the latest in mobile updates.