Social Media and Business

Social Media is an interaction among people where they create, interact, share, exchange information, ideas, pictures, videos in a virtual communication and network.

In the business of today, social media is transforming business, attracting business prospects and adding to the business bottom line. Social media is also referred to as digital media. For business to have a competitive edge, you cannot ignore the digital media.

Positive Effects of Social Media

Faster Information – A Company can spread information about a product faster instead of waiting for printing time. The information can be shared within seconds and help an organization on quick decision making. It is also vital to note that bad publicity or bad information may travel as fast. It is good to be careful on what you share before releasing such information to the general public. The social media has made or broken the barrier of information sharing as you share not only with your marketing niche but with the general public which include your competition.

Create bigger reach – Digital media means you can reach more customers and in the same media you can get feedback and comments. For an organization to be effective, it is good to monitor the comments, respond to them and do not delete even if you negative comments but give candid response on those comments. It is vital to note that constant monitoring and updates creates fans base which may turn to prospects.

Brand Building – Social media help small or upcoming companies to be known faster, cheaper and in a shorter period. It is possible to create an online giant within the social media platforms. A good example is when you run an excellent website which frequently updated with relevant information, frequent tweets, frequent face-booking and video sharing and you will keep building your brand. People are ready to pay ten times more for branded products and services.

Creating customer loyalty – Online customers are able to subscribe, follow updates and this creates space in their mind, this is market position which in the long run creates loyalty to your products and services. This means better return on investments which is good for business growth.

Role Models – Digital media has created role models through switching on notification for the people on business you want to bench mark with. In our company, Optiven Ltd which was the best overall company under mid-sized companies in the year 2014/2015, KPMA and business daily review, we had always bench marked with leaders of multinational companies. Our companies study the winning model through online updates and ideas in multinational best practices as advocated by the digital media tools they use.

Lead Generation – Social media helps organizations to direct customers towards their products and services. This happens when a potential customer becomes interested and sends some query to ask about your offering.

Business maximizes such leads if they are able to answer faster, honestly and professionally to the potential prospect. For maximum benefits be polite, straight forward and to the point when answering online queries to your client. It is vital to share information, answer questions even if you do not have what the online client is asking at the moment. Your language must be friendly and polite.

Types of Social Media helpful for business success.

1. Social Networks – This allow your business to connect and share information. These include:
   1. Google Plus
   2. You Tube
   3. Facebook
   4. Twitter
   5. Pininterest and others
2. Bookmarking sites – These sites allow you to save and organize links to any number of online resources and website.
3. Social News – This allows users to post news links and other items outside the articles. Users can vote for such news, articles and most voted are displayed. For instance of such social news is Reddit.
4. Media Sharing – Media sharing allows your clients to share different types of media such as pictures and videos. It also gives your business the ability to create a profile and the option of commenting on subscribing to the images. A good example is You tube. For you to be effective make it simple and brief.
5. Micro-blogging – A good example of micro blogging site is twitter. They allow users to submit short written stories, post photos on the “walls” of everyone who has subscribed to the user account.
6. Blog comments and forums – An online forum is a site that lets users engage in conversation by posing and responding to community messages. A blog comments are usually centered along a specific subject.

How business can use the social media tools for success depend on the willingness to run on the best way to use these tools. These are some of the tips

1. Have someone in your organization that is responsible for social media portfolio.
2. Train staff on the use of social media. These will give you an edge of having many eyes monitoring on what is happening in the social media platforms.
3. Have loyal online ambassadors that alert you on comments running across social media sites about your company.
4. The benefits of social media are enormous and no organization can ignore the current 21st century tools on social media. The business of today is on social sites and you ignore this and you become a dinosaur.

It is possible to grow your business, capture the market through social media. Our Own company Optiven Limited – www.optien.co.ke was third position during Marketing Society Of Kenya Competition ( MSK) 2014/2015 . My own blog – www.georgewachiuri.com came second after the Multinational Safaricom Ltd. It is possible to use digital media for your and your business to move to the next level.