Joining the Conversation in Today’s Social Scene

Before Facebook and YouTube, the seeds of what we now think of as social media and networking were being sown. Like-minded people shared information on Internet bulletin-boards, and consumers were given an opportunity to provide feedback and reviews on sites such as eBay, where a 99% positive feedback rating from previous customers went a long way in helping to make a buying decision. However, there is more comfort and security for a purchaser if the 99% rating is from 100 reviews rather than just one. And if you’re using the Internet for business, this highlights a simple yet critical message: the value of a social network increases with the number of people participating. It’s no surprise that with over 500 million users, Facebook has value not only to the people in the network, but also to businesses.

Social networking has changed the way we all do business because the Internet has transformed from a platform to convey a marketing message, to a place to converse with your customers. We trust our friends’ opinions more than we trust expensive ad campaigns. Word of mouth still rules the day, however the traditional model of “I told two friends and they told two friends” has transformed into: “I told 130 friends (the average number of friends someone has on Facebook) and they instantly told the world!”

Like it or not, social networking allows your customers to have a conversation about you and your business. By shifting this power into the hands of the consumer through social media this means new opportunities for business. Is there a reason not to have a presence on Facebook or other similar sites? Recently one of our clients feared that connecting his website to Facebook would invite users to complain about their service. Although this makes sense in some respects, it doesn’t allow the company to collect valuable user feedback that would otherwise lead to service improvements. Online conversations about your business may already be happening, with or without your participation, so you should ask yourself “how much do I know about the conversation?” and “to what degree do I want to be a part of the conversation?” Being a part of the conversation lets you turn negative feedback into constructive criticism and can show you work hard to respond to your customers’ concerns. They in turn will appreciate the effort and inevitably spread the word or better yet, will come to your defense online – often colorfully so!

It’s important to remember that conversations about your business on social networking sites can have a tremendous affect on your website rankings on search engines such as Google. Search engines may actually rank content from social media sites higher because they treat it as more up-to-date and relevant than the content on your official site. The more your business is mentioned online, the greater the number of links and keywords associated with your business for search engines to find. It’s not uncommon to see a company website emerge on Google searches after a mention on Facebook, Twitter or YouTube. Understanding how Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and a social media can work hand-in-hand is critical to any marketing strategy.

Ironically my company doesn’t have an official Facebook page – but that doesn’t mean we don’t use Facebook for business! My company is defined not only by the quality of work we do but by our personalities and our personal relationships with clients, so we use our personal Facebook pages to help define our brand.  We’ll occasionally do a “shout out” asking our friends for feedback on work we do. Recently infact, while working on the new EastLink site, we quickly gathered feedback and generated leads for new business, while simply asking for feedback on facebook. In the end, as long as you’re using social media legitimately and not “flogging” the masses with what appears to be contrived communication, then you’re using social media positively. Although Social media needs to be “organic” in order to work effectively, it doesn’t mean it can’t be cultivated; you just need to know how to plant the right communication for the benefit of your business as well as your customers.