Can Social Media Enhance Your Business?

You would be hard-pressed to find an issue of today’s most progressive business and trade journals, which doesn’t make mention of Social Media and Web 2.0 in some way. Emerging web technologies, particularly Social Media are having a remarkable impact on businesses — from small, entrepreneurial start-ups to multi-national giants.

In many ways, Social Media is also serving as “the Great Equaliser” — leveling the playing field, so that the small business can capture marketshare from some of the larger competitors they might not have had a compete with otherwise.

One of the greatest reasons for this shift is because Social Media and Web 2.0 has changed the way communication occurs between consumers and businesses. In traditional marketing, the communication is one-way: the business tells the consumer that they have a product that will (presumably) meet that potential customer’s needs, wants or desires. The marketing is limited by its scope also — there is only so much space in a given print or digital ad, so much air time in television or radio, and so much you can fit on a business card or flyer.

With Social Media, the communication is bi-directional, or more accurately, conversational. Suddenly, the opportunity exists to do what sales professionals have tried to do for decades: focus on building relationships with the prospects, so that when the time comes for a purchase, that client already perceives the business in a better, more friendly and trusted light. It’s all about relationship marketing, not sales or advertising.

Decidedly, a lot of businesses and entrepreneurs have not yet grasped this, and so there is still a fair amount of spam to be found on Social Media sites. But those who understand the potential, and who possess the skills to use more professional and successful strategies, are yielding amazing results.

Such entrepreneurs are able to gather relevant information faster than ever before, and determine the needs of their clients in ways that could not be easily done previously. And I can attest to the fact that this new frontier has transformed the way I do business as well. Not only has it put me in closer contact with my clients and potential clients, and streamlined my communications with the folks on my sales team, but it has also allowed me to forge relationships with other businesses that were previously viewed as competitors only. Now we network and support one another, and professionally help each other grow even more successful businesses.

The following is a list of fifteen of the more important tools I’ve used to build my business and develop new relationships with customers, businesses and with my competitors. It’s far from an exhaustive list, and will likely change as the industry (and my business) evolves. If you haven’t gotten your feet wet with Social Media, it’s probably as good a place as any to get started:

1. Twitter – Twitter is what we refer to as a “microblog” — a free service, from which you can send out 140-character messages (called “tweets”) to your network of contacts (called “followers”), and from which you can read what the folks you’re “following” are up to. Because it is a real-time communications system, it’s perfect for conversational threads, sharing ideas, and relationship building. It also helps to make me more “real” for clients I might not meet in person, since I can share such “incidental” details of my day, as where I am going for lunch, whether I am going to relax for a bit, or perhaps what is playing on my mp3 player right now.  (Note: One can use Twitter directly from their website, or can use some of the more useful software like TweetDeck, Twhirl and Feedalizr, to keep track of and send out “tweets”. I personally use Twhirl, instead of the web interface.

2. Tweetworks – Tweetworks is a service that runs in tandem with your Twitter account, which allows you to establish specific “groups” around your particular interests, business or skills. It also makes it easier to follow certain conversations, since it “threads” them, so that you can see the progression of a discussion in a more intuitive format.

3. Facebook – While I have some mixed thoughts about the usefulness and efficacy of Facebook, the fact is that they grew to more than 140 million users about 85 years faster than the use of the telephone. It is, therefore, a phenomenon with which to be reckoned. So I have an account there, and use it mostly as a means of connecting with friends, co-workers, and acquaintances. But more than that, it is a place that attracts all of the spammers and neophytes to the world of Internet marketing, so I see it as a lead source, since my products and services help those folks learn to become more productive, more responsible and more profitable entrepreneurs.

4. Blogs – Every entrepreneur or business owner has an area of specialty, skill or expertise… their product! Blogging is a good place in which to feature “what you know”, in a way that is more broad, and less “sales-like”. For example, as a life coach, I often share ideas in one of my blogs about personal development. That lets potential clients find useful information, while soft-selling them on the idea that I am a good choice for them, when they need the services of a life coach themselves. I’m a bit of a difficult person to “categorise”, or so I’m told. Because I am the head of a Christian-Buddhist monastic community, in addition to heading up one of the country’s premiere consulting and personal development centres, I have multiple blogs. One blog focuses strictly on the spiritual teachings and personal development materials, another on consulting, a third on network marketing and entrepreneurism, and a fourth on holisitic health. I also have a financial news site that I maintain. Decidedly, it’s a lot of work, and takes five or six times longer to promote all of that, but it keeps my focus laser-refined, and ensures that my target audience will stay engaged, based on their interests.

5. Multiply – Multiply is a social network that incorporates blogging, video, audio and groups, which I use as an actual “community building” tool. This also allows me to have a single place as a repository for all of my various blog posts… kind of like a library, from which I can cross-sell the goods and services, while continuing to build meaningful relationships.

6. Feedburner – another tool in the Google portfolio, which makes it possible to keep track of anything new happening with particular blogs, via email.

7. Plaxo – Plaxo is an online address book and social networking service founded by Napster co-founder Sean Parker, Minh Nguyen and two Stanford engineering students, Todd Masonis and Cameron Ring. Plaxo provides automatic updating of contact information. Users and their contacts store their information on Plaxo’s servers. When this information is edited by the user, the changes appear in the address books of all those who listed the account changer in their own books. Once contacts are stored in the central location, it is possible to list connections between contacts and access the address book from anywhere. Like FriendFeed, it also allows a user to list all their social media contact information into their profile, so that folks can subscribe or connect, or just read the “stream” that is pulled into Plaxo’s “Pulse” feature.

8. FriendFeed – FriendFeed allows you to route all of your online material – from your blog, Twitter, Facebook, etc. – to one stream.  Interested parties can “subscribe” to it, and you can add the streams of online friends to yours.

9. YouTube – In February 2005, three former employees from PayPal (the world’s easiest online payment and credit card transaction solution), formed a video sharing website where users can upload, view and share video clips, called YouTube. Now owbed by Google, YouTube uses Adobe Flash Video technology to display a wide variety of user-generated video content, including movie clips, TV clips, and music videos, as well as amateur content such as video blogging and short original videos. Most of the content on YouTube has been uploaded by individuals, although media corporations including CBS and the BBC and other organizations offer some of their material via the site.

10. Cool Conference Live – Cool Conference Live was created to provide free conferencing, meeting, training, and conversation opportunities to everyone from teenagers to senior citizens in every industry, social setting, and community.

Before I leave you to go check those tools out, let me give you my own contact information for those tools, so that you can connect with me and stay in touch!

Reach me on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/gianmichael
On FaceBook: http://www.facebook.com/people/Gianmichael-Salvato/1393305600
On MySpace: http://myspace.com/mandalainstitute
On MSN Messenger: dharmadude@live.co.uk
On Skype: lojong.monastery  or  networking.reinvented
On Plaxo: Dr. F. Gianmichael Salvato
On LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/salvatoconsulting
On LiveJournal: http://lovetakesyouin.livejournal.com
On Multiply: http:/dharmadude.multiply.com

Instant Messaging: Although I presently have accounts with all of the major instant messengers, I am gradually phasing-out the use of AOL Instant Messenger, ICQ, and Yahoo. My preferred instant messengers are currently:

MSN Messenger: dharmadude@live.co.uk
Google Messenger: dharmacharya@dharmadudeunplugged.com

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For more than 27 years, pioneer in the field of entrepreneurism and emerging Internet marketing technologies, Dr. F. Gianmichael Salvato, has focused on the fundamentals of personal and business development, peak performance, and wealthbuilding in the postmodern marketplace. Recognised as an innovator, Dr. Salvato has leveraged his achievements into a network of 358,000 entrepreneurs, who turn to him for weekly advice and insight, sharing his message with 3,400 audiences and more than a million people.
He is best known for his on-going contributions to helping people unlock the power of their own minds — teaching them how to apply that power to create strong, loving relationships, make more money, and live more meaningful, prosperous, health and satisfying lives.

You can join his primary social network and interact with him directly by visiting: http://www.betternetworker.com/referral/7777cb42

Copyright ©2008, Dharmacharya Gurudas Sunyatananda (Dr. F. Gianmichael Salvato). All rights reserved. This article may be reproduced, blogged, quoted or distributed, provided the entire blog, including by-lines, contact information and this copyright remain intact. It may NOT be altered in any way, without express written permission.