Here’s a secret for you. There are a ton of social media consultants crawling the Internet these days each claiming to be able to give you the secret to success. Well here it is…it’s YOU. That’s right, YOU are the secret to success when it comes to social media. Let me explain.
Consultants Are Great…But
There are good consultants (many bad ones too) out there right now specifically specializing in social media. However while a consultant can help develop a strategy for your company, even show you how to get started, at the end of the day there is one important ingredient to success – you. Not only is it central to your social media success it is the very essence of what your customers are looking for. People are interested in dealing with people not strategies, policies and procedures. Your ability to bring this one on one interaction is what will help differentiate you from your competition.
What You Bring To The Table
If your using social media correctly and effectively it will reflect who you are. The transparency and authenticity you bring to these tools is exactly what makes social media so valuable. Whether its blogs, social media networks, videos or pictures injecting yourself into these channels is the key to success. Sure there are different tactics for each of these tools depending on your desired results. Certainly you first have to determine what your market is looking for from these channels and align it with what your trying to achieve as well. In the end though no matter what the strategy is you will have to be central to it.
Small Business Advantage
The interesting thing with social media is that as a small business you have an advantage over businesses much larger. In fact one of the primary strategies big business use social media for today is to “feel” small. Just look at how the Fortune 500 companies use Twitter. Instead of “Big Brand” Twitter accounts its individuals such as Alicia Jones (Honda), Adam Densison (Chevy),Scott Monty (Ford), Jim Deitzel (Rubbermaid), and Frank Eliason (Comcast).
Ten years ago companies this size would never have put individuals at the forefront of the marketing message. Today’s a new day though and big companies are trying to feel small to their customers. Companies are trying to inject individual people into their brand messaging. That’s where you come in. You have the ability as a small business to immediately bring that personal authenticity to your customer. Now I realize the companies listed above aren’t your competition but I bet you have many competitors that are larger than you. I also bet many aren’t engaged on these channels right now.
You Need To Start
No one is better suited than you to bring an authentic, genuine voice to your company. You need to start engaging your customers on these social media channels. It’s something that most of your competition isn’t doing (yet) and the fact that you’re reading this tells me you’re already further down the path then most.
So tell me, does your company currently utilize social media channels now? Which ones? If not, why?
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