It might not be popular to say this as someone who makes a living managing social media for businesses, but social media is not complicated. For some reason, some people approach social media as if its some physics equation that only super savvy people can perform. Quite simply, social media for business is good, old-fashioned customer service repackaged for digital media.
The concepts social media “gurus” talk about today – transparency, earning respect, and honesty – are all things associated with
the ways we used to do business. Business owners knew their customers and their family. There was mutual respect and people actually cared and wanted to help each other. As businesses grew, however, they walled themselves away from their customer and true communication and relationship building disconnected.
Somehow we’ve come full circle and there is a desperate need for the old business/customer relationship again. The key here is not to let this returning concept stop at just retail, brick-and-mortar, face-to-face operations. Or just the mom-and-pop operations. Phone, email, web and social networks should all adopt this. Franchises and big businesses can also take this on even when they don’t have a central “shop owner” that can be the face of the personal company. Whether they hire someone to be that face, put their manager or CEO on Twitter or just adopt a more personal, engaged tone it really is that simple.
Don’t get me wrong. There are technical parts to social media for the inner geek. If you don’t have a flair for the nerdy, still have not upgraded to a smartphone, are too busy to jump into social media or simply need help to up your social media game then I strongly encourage you to get the help of a digital marketing company. But don’t let the technicalities keep you offline. Social media is simple and the survival of your business is based on you taking good, old-fashioned customer service to those platforms.
Image credit: Ted Dawson