Socializing for Sales
With Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube and many other social media platforms available, it may be overwhelming to think about having a presence on each of them, or even to choose which ones would be beneficial to business. The easy solution would be to ignore them and hope that social media's popularity dissipates. But that's not happening anytime soon. If you want to find your current clients, gain new customers and generate sales using a new medium, consider these social media tips.
Claim Your Brand
According to a Pew Research Center study, 73 percent of adults use at least one social networking site, while 42 percent use more than one. An eMarketer report indicated that 87 percent of U.S. marketers used social media for marketing in 2013. Those numbers are encouraging, but don't feel the need to jump on every social network. "I would definitely say to start small and then build," said Mandy Kilinskis, content/social team manager for Quality Logo Products Inc., Aurora, Ill. "Get yourself on Facebook, Twitter and Google+ just for the sake of people kind of expect you to be there."
It's 2014. Many potential clients are searching for and scoping out companies on the Web before placing orders. Your brand won't likely reach Coca-Cola's 84 million Facebook fans or Samsung Mobile's 8.9 million Twitter followers-the top brand on each respective platform-but with business-to-business interaction, you don't need to aim that high. Jason Moreau admits Amsterdam Printing, a distributor based in Amsterdam, N.Y., doesn't obtain the interaction levels of a business-to-consumer company, but its social media pages are easily accessible when a client needs to reach out.
"I think it's peace of mind knowing we're in all of those channels and that we will respond to you," said Moreau, Amsterdam's vice president of information technologies. "If you post something up there, you're going to get a response the same day. It's another way for people to contact us whether it's a customer just shouting out that they got a great product and their customers love it, or 'Hey, I've got a problem, and I'm going to direct message you on Facebook because that's where I'm most comfortable having that conversation."
And more and more, customers are preferring contact through a social network. Kilinskis confessed she fits in that category. "I know, personally, if I have a question, I will probably go to a company Twitter account before picking up the phone because that's kind of how I am," she said.
Social media gives you control of your brand, which is important. An unhappy client may take to Facebook to voice his or her disappointment with your company, but at least in this situation, you can respond and remedy the situation. "Social media getting big has made feedback public, and some people like to post public feedback instead of calling the call center. If you weren't there, you didn't have a Facebook page, they'd find somewhere else to do it," Moreau said, noting both positive and negative feedback remain on Amsterdam's social sites to retain transparency to customers.
Find Your Clients (and Prospects)
If your clients are on a social network, then maybe you should be too. Each platform appeals to a slightly different audience, so decide where you might find success and then give it a try. "Sit down in the morning and schedule all your posts over the course of the day, and just check in to see if somebody's talked to you, maybe once at lunch and once at the end of the day," Kilinskis said. "It's something you can easily manage to start off with, especially if you're smart about scheduling posts, sharing different types of content, and then you can scale [up] from there."
Time doesn't have to be an issue. Mark Graham, CEO of RIGHTSLEEVE, a Toronto-based distributor, noted that it's as simple as shifting your focus depending on your clients' preferred environment. "My mantra, as someone who has been in sales, is spend time where your customers are spending time," he noted. "If they're on the golf course, then you better be on the golf course. If they're on Facebook, then you better be on Facebook.
"And if you're really interested in selling to your customers, and all they do is golf all day and you're a crappy golfer, well, you know what? You're probably going to go and take some lessons," he continued. "So it's the same thing. If you wake up and all of a sudden all of your customers are all over Facebook, and you find that you're losing customers to distributors who are a lot more savvy on social [media], then you've got a decision to make. You either put your head in the sand or you go out and commit the time to it."
Make It Personal
Claiming your brand is important, but defining it is vital. Social media is meant to be personable. Amsterdam has serious posts, like small-business articles and product sales, but also mixes in lighter components, such as images of cartoons or events held at the office. "We think our customers want to know that we're not just order-takers here," said Allison Rice, director of marketing at Amsterdam. "We're all people and we want to help [clients] grow their business, and giving a little bit of the human aspect of our business I think helps too."
In the mid-2000s when MySpace and Facebook (then only open to college and high school students) dominated, social media was for personal use only. But fast-forward 10 years, and social networks have evolved drastically.
"I feel business has come in, and I wouldn't say crashed the party by any stretch, but business is here, and I think the most successful businesses that have come into these platforms are the ones that still honor that social media still had its roots in the personal world, not the professional world," Graham said. "I think the best brands are the ones that are able to sort of stand astride of those two markets, or those two realities. And that they're putting this human face on their brand, but they're connecting with people on a personal level."
Benefit From Your Work
While Amsterdam Printing was unsure how much its social media efforts directly impacted sales, the company's social-media strategies are designed to engage customers with the hope of cultivating new business as well. "We know that when our customers are satisfied, the happier they are,obviously the more profitable it is to us. So when we see good reviews and good comments on our Facebook, we know other customers are more likely to purchase from us," Rice said. "I think we consider it a good investment from that perspective."
For Quality Logo Products, an inquiry about a product mentioned on a social network may or may not lead to a sale, but it shows the content is attracting views. "We had someone ask us about a water bottle the other day on Facebook, so it's using [social media] as customer service information, and hopefully then they will become a customer. But it's also to show off that 'Hey, this is what we do. This is the content we create. Here are the hilarious videos we make.'"
Investing in social media relationships is worthwhile, but patience is needed. Graham cautioned distributors not to go after short-term sales on social media. "The short-term sale is that guy who gets on Facebook and starts spamming people with specials of his sunglasses," Graham said. "Generally [if you use] that approach, unless you've built up a huge audience of people who want to see nothing but cheap sunglasses, then you're really going after the short-term sale."
By being engaging, you're on your way to some long-term relationships that will result in sales. "That can be massively financially lucrative because if [social media] is where your customers are spending their time, and they're connecting with you and learning about your brand, then what better way to generate sales?" Graham said.
Amanda L. Cole is the editor-in-chief of NonProfit PRO. She was formerly editor-in-chief of special projects for NonProfit PRO's sister publication, Promo Marketing. Contact her at acole@napco.com.