The Future of Social Media on Business
As a business's operations and overall presence become more digital in nature, so do sales activities through social channels. More of the sales process happens online versus in person than ever before, creating a new future for how Social Media will impact Business.
This transition isn't exactly replacing the art of making things happen, though.
Selling is still about creating long lasting relationships that are mutually beneficial and knowing how to influence and persuade people to take positive action. Social media is just a new frontier where salespeople can foster and activate those relationships.
After so many years of trying to lock us out of social networks because they waste employees time, many businesses are starting to embrace social networking as a means to increase employees morale and drive increased collaboration.
Part of this trend has been driven by Slack, a terrific tool to help co-workers share information, gifs, and organize information through channels and now Facebook has launched Facebook for Work, enabling us to sign in once and be connected to a work-facing Facebook and a personal Facebook at the same time, without mixing them.
Old time companies like Ford Motor Company have really began to embrace the social trend to help unite customer experience, show off quality content and help answer customer questions.
Clicking on any of the images brings you to an instagram page of Ford fans praising the new designs, talking about what is coming up in the future and employees of Ford are also reaching out in the comments section of these instagram pages to share their insights and passion about rebuilding the Ford brand.
It is an engagement utopia that's changing the way a company brings value to a customer!
Your business must put its website content at the forefront of all its digital advertising efforts, as it functions as the authoritative foundation of your brand. Use your social media outlets to enhance your main website by posting links, media, and other content that redirects traffic back to your website.
When you redirect people back to your website you not only create SEO value but it helps you better control the sales process through a consistent visual and contextual message. Also, when you use social media redirects to your website you can begin to segment your traffic via google analytics to see which social media platform is driving the most traffic to your site and then you can place more of your companies time in that social arena.
Isn't it exciting when Tim Cook from Apple or Elon Musk from Tesla does a live presentation to share grand ideas about future projects and new product releases?
Well, with Google Hangouts, Skype and many other live video platforms, companies are finding out how to develop more frequent live FAQ pages or Q and A sessions to better enhance customer engagement in a one on a couple setting.
This live information is so powerful because it is so personal.
You can take a small group of potential customers, current customers, people that have had a bad experience and place them on a live call with a company representative to answer their specific questions. This is Customer Segmentation and Service at its finest!
Also, don't forget to use a Screen Capture Software to record the live Q and A or FAQ video, because this video can be posted on your companies FAQ page to increase quality content, answer very specific questions and show how important your customers are to your company.
Not all social media is created equal. Just as gold must be purified through fire so you need to test your social media channels to see which ones help refine and grow your brand and which ones are just false alchemy.
The future of business is to go social and grow social!
If you need any help in this area we offer a Free Marketing Consultation on how to best use Social Media to Drive Customers to Your Website.