Social Media’s Ultimate Goal

What’s more important? Immediate Profit or Lifelong Customers?

Businesses invest on social media to market their products and services, get regular customers and increase profit. Sometimes, entrepreneurs embark on web marketing campaigns and get disappointed when they don’t immediately achieve their desired outcome. As a result, they scrap the whole social networking project and look for other marketing avenues.

Let us clear up misconceptions. When a business first buys into social media, little profit should be expected. Social networking does not mean immediate leads that you can turn to sales and revenues. It focuses more on making connections and building relationships with other people in the Net. Once you have established connections, that’s the time to start raising brand awareness, managing brand reputation and promoting word-of-mouth engagement about your products.

When you first join social networks, you have to understand your target audience first. You need to determine how you will be able to connect with them, learn what topics they usually discuss and find out what their needs are. Not studying your preferred demographic can translate to huge losses you cannot easily recoup.

Shadowing the progress of other companies involved in social media can make you learn a lot about what works on the Internet. This knowledge can help you tailor your business goals to suit your situation and provide marketing messages that are essentially attractive to your customers. Reach out to influencers, interact with your followers and take the time to build your reputation within your chosen social media platform.

Prevent from making hard sales and product promotions because these can disenchant your customers. Share your knowledge about your field instead. Make your content relevant and engaging to your audience and get in touch with them. Share your knowledge about your field and comment on their posts. Listen to their replies and respond to their feedback.

Social media takes time to help you make your business flourish. It’s a continuous trial and error to see what techniques best work for you. It is also similar to getting someone you really like agree to a date with you. You can’t just approach that person and ask her to go out with you. You have to get to know her first, familiarize yourself to her characteristics and win her good will. This is the same condition with social media. You cannot immediately achieve customers; you have to make them feel comfortable enough to trust you to give them the products and services they need.