By Serenah McKay
With so many people now on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social media, how can you, as a business owner, rise above the clamor and connect with your customers and employees?
Brad Lawless, Director of Brand Strategy for Collective Bias, says his firm walks companies new to social media through these four steps:
- Use social media, such as tweets and YouTube, to listen to what people are saying about your company.
- Once you get a feel for what people are saying, start engaging them. For instance, reply to a tweet, not necessarily about your business, but just to get engaged in the conversation. Then you can throw in an occasional special or promotion.
- Figure out what’s working for you and giving you the best return on your investment of time.
- Then, “start blowing it out.” Now that you know what works for you, just go forward on all cylinders.
“Companies pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for focus group research to get this kind of information,” says Lawless, who was part of a social media panel at the Economic Summit held by the Springdale Chamber of Commerce.
Rolf Wilkin, the founder and owner of Eureka Pizza and panel participant, is an avid user of social media to market his business.
“It’s about building a relationship,” he says, and he encourages people to reply to his e-mails and tweets.
Like Lawless, Wilkin says listening to your customers is vital, and he feels Twitter is the best way to keep track of what people are saying about your business.
The biggest mistake Wilkin says he sees is people not following their “followers” on Twitter.
“You need to remember it’s a conversation, and you have to listen to what others are saying.”
Third panel participant, Eric Edelstein, general manager of the Northwest Arkansas Naturals, says using social media has become “just part of my thought process.” It takes only a minute or two throughout his day to read and respond to tweets, he says.
An advantage that tweeting has over e-mail, Edelstein says, is a higher “barrier to annoyance.” While people may feel irritated or overwhelmed when their e-mail inboxes are inundated, tweets are brief and only require a few seconds to read or type a response.
Ultimately, he says, it’s about “humanizing” the team, and gives an avenue for letting the fans communicate with them, whether it’s to complain, ask questions or just make a comment.
In turn, that allows management to respond to those questions and complaints, thus improving customer service and satisfaction.
Lawless says Twitter is “just a part of your overall public relations and advertising strategy. You have to get your name in front of the most eyeballs, whether it’s newspaper, direct mail, whatever.
“Get an account, follow friends and family, get into a few conversations,” Lawless advises. “It can be painless.”
Wilkin encourages businesses not yet using social media to “just jump in.”
“It’s fun, it’s easy and it’s free,” he says. “There’s no downside to it.”
Serenah McKay is a freelance writer and editor who lives in Rogers. She has more than 15 years experience as a journalist and assistant business editor. Contact Serenah at serenahmckay@hotmail.com.
