Social Media

There is lot of hype in the market that social media is ruling the marketing world. In fact people do not understand the power of social media marketing and how they can use it for optimum profits. There are big corporates and small business owners who are using social media to generate more leads and sales, but some of them are doing it correctly and some are being pulled into the death hole of it. Social media means having social conversations with other individuals, groups who are having similar thoughts, tastes or ideas etc. but most of the marketers are not able to understand the ladder of intimacy and why they must have a close relation before they sell any product or service.

For example there is a boy who is meeting women in a restaurant. He cannot expect to take a ring and say I would like to marry you in his first interaction; the output of such action is the girl running away. This is similar in the virtual world of internet or social media. The first thumb rule of any social conversation is to build trust and authority. The first mistake any marketer does is to push the product or service when people start interacting with him. He is not aware that “customers don’t like to be sold, they love to buy”. Trust and authority are the two elements which are hard to establish, but will generate revenue, sales, leads etc in the long term if established properly.

Some people ask how can I build trust and authority in the market which I do business. Now that internet is available in each and every part of the world this can be done in many ways. The four tools which I use to do this are
1. twitter
2. linkedin
3. facebook
4. blog

Twitter is a micro blogging platform and this has just turned the world of social media and how people see it. It is a place where the message is delivered in 140 characters and if used properly this 140 characters of message is a secret weapon.

Linkedin.com a place where all the professionals meet virtually. Linkedin has got more than 60 million professionals registered with them and this is growing day by day. Linkedin has got groups and answers section which can be used to build trust and authority.

Facebook the largest social networking which has got more than 500 million users and overtook the Google traffic in USA on March 13 2010. If people know how to use facebook properly they can generate more leads and sales solely from this source.

Having an official blog creates more trust in the customers mind and creates brand value. Business owners must regularly update the blog about the market/industry in which they are experts. Regular blogging about your industry give the feeling that you are an expert in your field/area of subject.