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When developing a marketing strategy for a business, a small entrepreneur must look at social media marketing as an important tool. Here are three main reasons why a business should be connected in 2010.
1. Listening to the voice of your customers
Social media has given an opportunity to customers to voice their opinion directly to businesses. Before the emergence of social media, statistics showed that an unhappy customer told approximately 11 people about their bad experience with a business. But now, due to the easy connectivity among people through social websites, the number of customers that can be affected by one customer’s opinion is in the thousands!
So monitor the social media environment to see what people are saying so that you may respond appropriately and quickly. Three of the most useful online tools that you can use to monitor what people are saying about your business are Google Alerts, Addictomatic and TweetBeep.
2. Customers expect an active business presence
Social media has become a new platform for customer service. Your customers expect you to be there. To deliver the best service possible, businesses have to respond to what is being discussed about them on the websphere. Otherwise it gives the impression that the business doesn’t care, and eventually will lead to customers not caring either. Get engaged.
3. Social media marketing enhances your visibility
Visibility + Credibility = Profitability - this is the formulae devised by Ivan Misner, founder of Business Networking International, (BNI). Due to the large number of users of social media, it's unwise not to be present when it has become so simple yet so cost-effective.
Visibility - Facebook and Twitter have millions of users around the world, something your business should take advantage of. There is no reason to miss out on a huge opportunity for visibility in front of such a large number of potential customers.
Besides these three top benefits, don’t forget the fact that social media results are now indexed by Google, Bing, and Yahoo. This means that your Twitter messages (and your company profile) have a high probability of appearing at the top of Google for specific keyword searches. This can really boost your presence on the websphere. So show the world that you're open and ready for business!
