The Apples and Oranges of Social Networking for Your Business: How To Series for SME's

Social Media is the buzzword all around. Many of our partner Small and Medium enterprises come back to us with queries on Social Media and how they can use it for their business. The experts at IndiaMART Knowledge Services got together to find a solution  and have listed 7 simple rules one must put into practice while leveraging Social Media for their business.

We already know how Social Networking is being touted to be changing the way we communicate today. Consumers have deeper engagement with the content with the evolving media. How your customers/ employees react to you/ your company/ your proposition has changed. And all this is happening even as we are discussing all of this on this blog post.

But does Social Networking/ Social Media work for Businesses, is it not a PR/ Branding tool only?
Before we answer this question, lets step back a couple of months, almost leading to years and well, we will see enough cases of businesses, which have leveraged the New Media for creating new opportunities and solving various functional challenges, into HR, Marketing, Sales etc.

Go To Market Effectively with Social Media
Social networks have been touted as the next big marketing tool for every business, especially for the Small and Medium enterprises, as it forms as one of the most cost effective medium of doing business and reaching out. To simply start, we are sure, many of you reading this post, will already have an active account on social networks like: Facebook, Orkut, LinkedIn, Twitter etc.

Source: http://www.jayphilips.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/b2b-sm.jpg

But my business has not seen any major ROI?
Lets set the expectations right in the beginning only. While Social Media is still in its nascent stage as an industry, there are new insights emerging every day and businesses which are smart are taking the advantage.

The 7 rules to go by, defining the apples and oranges of Social Networking for your business to achieve actual results:

• Have a strategic plan before going online. There are multiple probabilities that you as an emerging business must take into account before going online. Your business objectives must be clear about what value do you aim to derive out of this medium and if this medium can even provide the same or not.
• Understand your target audience. Your messaging and communication online should match the expectations of your target audience. If you are in a niche industry that sells directly to a few selected group of clients, then perhaps, social media may not be able to help you too much. If your customers are in rural towns and villages in India, then social media is definitely not your vehicle, at least till the time mobility makes information access possible in these areas.
• An apple may be good for a business, may not suit you. Don't go by the same Doctor's advice all the time. An apple a day is good, but in Social Media it has to be customized for your business. You need to be simultaneously active on multiple networks that reach out to your target audience. Just being active in one will not further your cause.
• Social media is NO Magic! Do not expect miracles overnight. The basics of marketing remain the same always: you have a customer to whom you are trying to reach out to. You need to build up the trust of your audience. Social media have their on trust and reputation cycles, and it will take time to build up your reputation in a network and to get people to respond to you.
• Respond back the right way. Remember that when you are online and talking, your message reaches out to many potential target audiences, which also include your prospective customers. As a business, rather than employing an army to answer back, you must employ your resources intelligently to engage your target audience in a conversation. Genuinely listen and answer, rather than copying and pasting just one answer to people at all times.
• An outsourced agency cannot represent your brand at all times. You understand your business the best. If you use social media, then you need to put enough resources behind it. Ideally, all employees in the organization should contribute. Many businesses today are outsourcing their social media activities to agencies, which is not wrong, but you must be engaged in this activity yourself as well. The ownership must be taken by someone internally who is capable of taking decisions and communicating just right to the agency which furthers your cause on the social media with their niche knowledge of the tools and the media.
• Make it personal. Are you talking to machines out there? OR your customers and employees? Well, if second one is your answer, then you need to be personal. You need to be powerful in your communication. Using jargons and big words, may not always crack the game for you in generating intended results from your social media activities.

To know more on how your business can best leverage the Social Media drop in a comment to this post and our experts will touch base.