Social media is a powerful business tool, considering the vast number of people who currently use the various networks worldwide. There are currently 901,000,000 people on Facebook, 517,000,000 Twitter users, and over 175,000,000 on LinkedIn, just to name a few. While you may look at these numbers with a staggering head thrust (don’t we all?), some might also be saying to themselves, “Yeah, but we run a business. We manage a sales territory. What does this have to do with us?”
Not so fast. While most people do use social networks for personal purposes, some of them (if not a majority of them) are still business people.
Now imagine this. You’re a clothing retailer and you are standing outside the biggest mall in America. You’re being offered free access to your own store space. You have all of your products in hand. But you’re refusing to go inside. Why would you do that?
The answer is – you wouldn’t. You would obviously go inside, set up shop, and gain access to the thousands upon thousands of potential customers.
With social media, instead of having one giant mall (unless you want to count Facebook as such), you have many different malls all filled to the brim, some filled with the same people in each. So many ways and places to interact with potential clients; it’s like your company’s own virtual new prospect goldmine!
LinkedIn is a great avenue for business users, as it is the virtual meeting place of tons of business professionals. In 2011, LinkedIn members did nearly 4.2 billion professionally-oriented searches on the network, and that number is expected to reach over 5.3 billion in 2012.
That’s a lot of people looking for business tools, right at your company’s fingertips! Here at KLA Group we are actively involved with our LinkedIn connections, talking with them daily, sharing what values we can offer, and striking up important dialogue that is a huge asset to our business.
Let’s see if I can do this in 140 characters or less. Twitter is a great tool for concisely portraying your company’s value to potential clients in a fun and clever way. Wow! I only used 117 characters, plenty of room left over for a link to your company’s offer that will pull those prospects right to you! We at KLA Group interact with our 7,000+ followers all the time about upcoming events, quick tips for how to better put your sales practices into place, and sharing insightful business information that we find helpful, and think your company might too!
With over nine million “friends” hanging out there, I’d say this social network is the Donald Trump of all social networks. They are the innovator, the trendsetter, the social network that everyone hates to love and loves to hate, but the one, undoubtedly, that nearly everyone uses. Facebook is an informal platform; a virtual meeting place for friends and family. Because of this it requires a unique, conversational tone – especially for businesses. If your company comes across like a sales pitch, you’ll quickly hear “you’re fired” echoing through the ethers. However, if your company posts a mix of both professional and personal updates – photos of events, momentous occasions in employees’ lives, exciting advances for the company, etc. – then Facebook provides a trusted, friendly environment to connect with prospects.
There is worth to be discovered in all these social networks, and even the ones not mentioned here. The trick is to not get overwhelmed by the options. You don’t want to be left at the door, allowing all those great, free prospecting opportunities pass your company by. Grab your company’s value, grab your company’s offers, grab your company’s greatest opening line and step inside!