Leveraging Social Media to Your Advantage
There are a few amazing stories about people that have gone from rags to riches using the internet and or social media to pave their road to great wealth. So yes it is possible to dramatically accelerate your success if you leverage these amazing new forms of media properly. The secret to make this strategy work for you though, is to remember that the fundamentals of business have not changed. People still buy from businesses they know, like, trust and offer the best value.
Social media has transformed the way that businesses can connect to and interact with their markets. Consumers have a much greater expectation around communication and they expect almost instant responses from any product or service provider. They want to know that business is listening to them and that their needs are being met exactly how they want them to be met.
Social media has opened a whole new way of doing business and offers businesses an amazing tool to market their products and services. It also offers a voice to consumers and empowers them to demand better products and services from businesses.
Businesses that will thrive over the next few years will grab hold of this opportunity with both hands and start to listen to what their markets are asking for. They will provide exactly what the market wants and ensure that they communicate this very clearly via a targeted marketing strategy via social media.
The challenge facing all businesses right now is pressure from all sides to dive into social media and to just become immersed in the conversation. This is a really dangerous strategy and businesses will do more harm than good by plunging blindly into something they know nothing or very little about. Any business that wants to get involved with social media must follow some basic business principles.
1. Know exactly what your objective is with the strategy.
2. Develop a plan that clearly outlines your objectives and vision.
3. Build measurement criterion into your strategy and constantly measure your progress against these criterion.
4. Constantly tweak and improve your strategy, until it delivers on your expectations.
5. Target your connections and clearly outline the purpose of using each type of social media.
6. The internet and social media is not an online atm.
Social media and the internet are merely new platforms for getting our message out to the people that will learn to like and trust our businesses. Social media offers a better/different platform than traditional marketing methods such as magazines; TV, radio spots etc. But fundamentally the requirements are the same. Businesses must still find ways to get their consumers in their target markets to like, trust and value their market offerings.
Getting Started
The first step in the process is to commit to get educated about social media and what it offers. This is really simple and begins by searching on the internet by typing the question you want answered in Google. Any question you may have about social media and how to leverage it in your business are answered on the internet. Remain objective and steer clear of the myriad of offerings of instant success and making millions by merely spending 30 minutes a day on the internet or social media.
Once you have a rudimentary understanding about how social media can help your business and how to begin building your social media strategy. You can hire the services of a professional social media coach to help you to build an effective strategy. Due diligence is advised. As with any business decision, be very selective about whom you hire. There are a myriad of so called experts clamouring to become part of this new trend.
As you are getting started sign up for TweetBeep alerts and just listen to the conversation that is going on in your target market. Listen to what people may be saying about yours or your competitor’s products or services. Observe how your competitors are communicating with the market and the type of feedback they are receiving form the market. This will give you a great starting point to gauge how to position your message and communication in your target market.
Social media is a new and exciting interactive communication tool that when leveraged properly will accelerate your business to new heights of success.
http://www.andrewhorton.co.za

Author's Bio: 

I am an Entrepreneur, Master Teacher, Radio Host, Global Traveler and Author. My area of focus is in the field of human behavior, expanded awareness and enlightenment. I travel the planet constantly researching, learning and seeking ways to unlock the mysteries of the human mind. I delve into the inner workings of the universe, always looking for ways to understand my role in making things better and contributing to the improvement of the human experience.
I live an authentic and privileged life filled with love and gratitude. My mission and vision has been to gather, learn and apply as much wisdom and knowledge in my own life as possible. To this end I have been a voracious student, in the field of human behavior and human development. http://www.andrewhorton.co.za