Whether you are part of a huge corporation or are a small business owner, you know that a social media presence is no longer optional. It’s an integral part of the marketing plan for any business that wants to be profitable. If your business is not engaging regularly, you are missing out.

Listening and Engaging on Social Media

One trap that newcomers to social media fall into is thinking that it’s all about selling. They only talk about their company and their product. And others are turned off by this level of promotion. But social media is not about advertising; it’s about sharing your expertise and helping others to connect with helpful information and like-minded people. It’s about building an online relationship with your target market, strategic partners, and related media.

When you use social media to connect with people rather than selling to them, you establish your credibility as an expert, and your community starts to trust you, and turn to you as the resource for reliable information. They become comfortable with you and your brand and start to think of you as their friend.

By taking the time to listen to your social media, you create the opportunity to build your reputation as a thought leader in your industry and build trust by offering solutions and advice that your audience can really use. Effectively using social media does take time and consistent effort to learn what your community or target market wants and needs, and then to fill those needs. It’s worth the investment of your time, think about the rewards:

• you are tapped into your market, strategic partners, the the media in an entirely different way
• you are in live conversations with the people you want to connect with
• you have the opportunity to learn more about what they what and what they need
• you stop wasting time and money on creating products and services that people do not buy
• the amount of time, effort, and money spent on marketing decreases and your bottom line increases
• your social media marketing plan and be aligned with your overall marketing plan so they work together. Build the relationship with social media and connect to your marketing funnels to close the sale

The result is priceless: you become visible online

Before people will buy from you, they need to know you and trust that you have something of real value to share with them. That’s where social media and quality PR can really grow your business, by gaining visibility online in a very targeted way.