Social media – love it or hate it?
When it comes to social media, everyone has an opinion. Do you love it or hate it?
Whenever you do anything related to your business, this is part of your brand, and social media is no different.
What you say online is important. Sharing too much personal stuff or being derogatory won’t always help you. But being human and showing your personality will allow people to get to know the real you.
As a strategic business tool, I do believe that when complemented with physical conversations, it adds power to your marketing opportunities. Not only can you keep in touch with people you’ve met, you can build relationships, and demonstrate your expertise too.
In December I interviewed social media expert Veronica Pullen, exclusively for members of The Business Wow Factor, to get her opinion on using social media for business. On the call she shared the eight step strategy that she uses to turn her online relationships into loyal fans and ultimately sales. In a nutshell, through nurturing and adding great value, people have the chance to find out what you do and how you can help them. When you marry this approach with list and community building strategies, then it is even more effective.
Then in January, I asked Julia Bramble to talk to my members about how to effectively use Facebook advertising. Another jam packed session, again this is another profitable way to build your list and grow your business – when you do it right of course. In the interview, Julia shared many of the costly mistakes that people make and what to do to make it work for you.
Personally, I love the resources that social media gives me. Facebook in particular can be a great place to get advice and ask questions, and when you’re working by yourself, you can get instant access to other people just like you. I believe it opens up a whole different landscape of business.
LinkedIn and Twitter also allow you to reach with more people you can do face-to-face, and the possibilities of connecting with the right people are infinite. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
With my book launch, social media was one of the biggest tools I used to create a buzz, and if you want to grow your business, I believe you need to be online! Of course, I talk about this further in my new book too 🙂
What do you think?
I’d love your comments below and tell me what you think!
If you have a success story where you’ve used social media as a business growth tool, I’d like to find out more.
One last thing
To get hold of these interviews plus 30+ more and other essentual business resources, get your copy of my new book Your Book is the Hook now. In the book you’ll get access to a special discount code to get your first month’s membership of The Business Wow Factor membership club for just £10.
I love social media too Karen. Most of the things I’ve achieved in my business have originally come from social platforms – Twitter and LinkedIn especially.
It’s a great way to get noticed thank you Ginny for adding your comments.
I was watching The Fixer last night, and Alex commented that 70% of new business is gained from networking.
From what I hear regularly, it would seem that most business owners view “networking” to mean “attending lots of networking events”
It’s important to grasp that social media is social networking, and the platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Linked in are NETWORKING places
Conversations = relationships, and relationships = clients. It really is that simple. Have more conversations. Don’t post more offers
Just last night I hosted a Twitter chat for previous winners of #SBS, and Theo Paphitis himself turned up. In the offline world, how easy would it be to get Theo to turn up to your event? 🙂
Thanks Veronica. It’s all about choosing the right medium for networking, isn’t it rather than being overwhelmed. When you know where your clients hang out, it makes it easier to hang out with them!
Given that 60% of the adult UK population are actively using social media – how can you not afford to be there?
How else can you be listening to what your prospects are talking about, positioning yourself as an expert and being referred to others – before they’ve even visited your website, leave alone met you in person?
However, the key to using social effectively (and Facebook ads too) is to be very clear on what, in particular, you want to achieve, to avoid overwhelm and keep focused. Once you have that thought through, then you can systemise and organise your activity to make sure that you get the most out of the time you put in, whilst still being authentic.
It goes without saying that I am in the ‘love it’ camp – I’ve built a 6-figure business based on social media!!
Thanks for your comments Julia and I thought that might be the case! It’s about choosing the right way to use it as a business tool and strategically I might add. I’m in the love camp myself!