I had a conversation with a business owner recently about social media and how they used it in their business. Turns out they didn’t use it because they were frightened of having potentially negative comments posted on their page.

 

A negative comment will still exist even if you don’t have social media, with social media now you know what ‘they’ are saying about you! Embrace the opportunity to be able to respond to a customer and their gripe, it may be legitimate and allow the opportunity to fix an operational element of your business. There is also the likelihood “fans” of you page will speak up for you.

The fear of the unknown when it comes to social media is a very real prospect for some businesses.

 

I worked on a campaign for an organisation in which we proposed the development of a Facebook page as one of several tools to use in the campaign. Facebook was the perfect engagement tool as the target audience was women and Facebook is popular with women. The idea terrified the client, we almost lost the account! “I’m not on Facebook” was one comment, therefore the idea was doomed to failure in their eyes. But with some gentle encouragement and some brave steps by our client we stepped boldly into the world of social media. They had an overwhelming response, killed their KPI’s and even won an award for ‘their’ idea and we were delighted for them.

 

According to the Sensis Social Media report 69% of Australian internet users have a social media profile. Leading the charge in the social media stakes is Facebook with 95% of social media users owning a Facebook profile. While the number of times people access Facebook hasn’t changed that much, 32 times a week, the amount of time spent on each occasion has increased from 17 to 24 minutes.

There are enormous opportunities in social media to engage with your customers, build your brand and even have a conversation with your customers. Forty one percent of social media users will inspect a brand’s social media presence before making an online purchase if they have not purchased from their website before.

 

The secret to a strong Facebook page is regular, high quality posts. Like any piece of communication, the key is in the message.

You need to have a strategy around how you will communicate with your social media audience which means having variety of posts such as video, images, helpful content too like tips and advice and don’t be afraid to have a bit of fun. It’s what we do every day at Enigma with clients who’ve entrusted their social media pages to us.

Be brave and get social in business.