According to The Nielsen Company social networking and blog use increased nearly 300% over one year ago. That is a staggering amount indeed. So as an entrepreneur whats that mean to you? Well for one thing you need to be paying attention to where people are spending their time on Internet.
Knowing where your clients are on the web will help you to be able to communicate with them better. I know the media are all over this social networking stuff, but it’s surprising to me how many business just aren’t getting involved. Sure there are a bunch that are, but more that aren’t. For the most part your average small business or entrepreneur is still trying to figure out how their website fits into the marketing plan, let alone social networking.
Here’s a scenario I recently heard. A guy sends out a tweet asking what cool hotel he should stay at in some city. He gets first tweet back with a hotel suggestion, second tweet back with same hotel suggestion and the third tweet comes from the hotel itself. He ends up staying at the hotel and loved it. The cool thing though was that the hotel was able to “listen” for the need and then meet it. To me that is the power of social networking and blogging. It allows you the ability to listen, as well as talk, to your customers.
When you see such a huge leap in how the Internet is being used you need to pay attention.
“This growth suggests a wholesale change in the way the Internet is used,” said Jon Gibs, vice president, media and agency insights, Nielsen’s online division. “While video and text content remain central to the Web experience – the desire of online consumers to connect, communicate and share is increasingly driving the medium’s growth.”
That one word, “desire” is exactly why you need to be a part of social media as well. Allow your customers to interact with you on their terms. If that is their medium of choice or at least something that they are becoming more actively involved in then you need to be there also. Go where they’re at, not where you want.
