Social networking is becoming very appealing to businesses to help promote themselves, according to Randall Craig, social media expert and author of Social Media for Business.
“The allure of social media has to do with all of the people that are getting on it. It has become a critical communication tool to an entire segment of customers and the prospect group of businesses,” says Craig.
Social media changes the nature of the relationship from mere communication with customers, prospects and employees to actual engagement, says Craig.
Tricia Ryan, small business coach and author of Marketing to Succeed, examines what businesses are doing to create online interaction between themselves and their customers.
Thirty-five per cent of people are more likely to purchase a product if it has more likes on the product page, according to “Social Commerce IQ: Retail,” a study of over 50,000 consumers over the age of 18.
Ryan also cited a recent U.S. study, “How the Top 200 Retailers Use Facebook,” which provides statistics for the top retailers in social commerce.
“You get things like Victoria’s Secret, Wal-Mart, Sephora, etc . . . I look at that and I’m not surprised. They’re huge, they have big budgets, people look them up anyway. You can get many people to visit these pages once, but my question is, what are you doing to create interaction and bring these people back?”
The survey, “Social Media Examiner’s Top 10 Small Business Facebook Pages for 2011”, revealed that the top 10 Facebook fan pages included Easy Lunch Boxes, Dog Training Ireland and Obeo — pages most users normally wouldn’t think to visit.
Despite being dedicated to smaller companies, these pages provided services on their fan page that made users return, like quizzes, contests, discounts and service information.
Companies are also using social media to reach out to employees and new talent.
About 80 per cent of employers now use LinkedIn to help recruit new talent, according to Craig.
“Kijiji, Craigslist, the traditional job boards . . . what they have here is a database of experiences. Now what LinkedIn has is a database of experiences wired together. That’s why social media, not just LinkedIn, is critical to the job seeker. You don’t get offered a job by a computer; you get offered a job by a real person,” says Craig.
Ryan says she believes it will be critical that job searches require an online work profile from potential employees.
Corporate social media strategies have been developing and changing in recent years, as social networking becomes the norm to help promote companies.
“Every business is unique. I think that there’s an appropriate way [to use social media], and it’s got to fit within the business’ marketing, human resources and various interaction strategies,” says Craig.
