Social Networking – Why?

March 1st, 2010 | Author: Virtually Sorted

A few years ago blogging was all the rage, and if you were anyone online, you had to have a blog. I think the craze has settled somewhat as those useful blogs have gone from strength to strength and the bandwagon jumpers’ enthusiasm has waned. I did think at the time: Yes, but what is the POINT of blogging? There’s a similar argument for social networking, although I’m now beginning to see the point. We’re getting 50-60 unique visitors a month being pulled in from just our Twitter page: www.twitter.com/virtuallysorted

In a nutshell, it’s about communicating with your customers on a more personal, frequent basis to build the relationship. People buy from people. And people are on those social networking sites!

After all, why do I, write on here for example? Certainly to tell you about some of the things my company does, but also so you see the human side of what is a very virtual business in nature. I’ve never even met some of our clients, but they know I wear jeans to the office most days, that my husband’s name is Craig and that I have a mad Burmese cat – just as I know one of my clients is looking for Mr Right, that another one hates his mother in law and that there was a flood in Wales last week. Nothing at all to do with business, but it certainly helps build the relationship.

So that’s the “Why?” dealt with – what about the “How?” With so many social networks (Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Xing, Twitter, ecademy, youtube to name but a few) how do you know that where to start and how much time it is worth investing in them?

A small admission: My Facebook page is managed by Emma as I have zero idea how it works, nor do I particularly want to spend hours trying to work it out. She also set up the Twitter account and maintains it so we get optimum exposure. And when we get a new client, I can almost guarantee that I’ll know what they look like within 20 minutes, because she’ll have retrieved an online picture from somewhere!

Cyber-stalking aside, social media does have a useful business application. I know a consultant who gets 90% of his work from Linked In (he’s rated as a small business expert through careful profile building and interaction). And our online trafficing system, Smartsheet, even launched its newest updates through Twitter.

One of the biggest trends we are going to see this year in social networking is rationalisation of time based on returns, and an increasing emphasis on being able to convert those followers/friends/fans into real customers.