Social networking is a direct form of communication that allows you and another person to respond directly to each other.
An example is a Facebook page where you post an article and your readers reply back, which are then answered by you and so on. Many companies use social networking since it’s another stream to promote and address customer concerns.
It’s a powerful form of communication that’s bringing in profits for many companies; so is social networking for you?
To find out, think of social networking as a seed in your garden. Left by itself, it’ll wither and produce no fruit like a non-updated blog or Twitter feed.
Give it poor attention, and it’ll result in a poor plant – unpleasant to look at and a poor advertisement of your abilities. So do you have what you need to properly utilize social networking sites?
Do You Have the Time?
Social networking sites need to be updated on a regular basis. This means adding new content and responding to reader’s questions.
If you can’t keep your information up to date, people will assume its representative of your company or worse, assume you aren’t in business at all any longer. See how much your competition is updating and use that as a basis for how frequently is enough. Ideally, you’ll want to do better by updating on a more regular basis and interacting with those willing to take the time to communicate with you.
Can You be Professional?
You’re providing a platform for open communication and it probably won’t all result in glowing reviews of your company.
Sooner or later, someone will get angry enough to spread their negative experience with as wide an audience as possible. Lose your temper with that person and there is now a record of the incident for the whole world to see.
To avoid this, imagine a camera on you when you communicate online. It’s fine to disagree with a customer, but refrain from getting angry in public if possible since other people will notice.
You can always mutter something under your breath offline if you like.
Worried About Information Leaks?
You’re talking about your business and sharing information so what happens when a competitor finds out what you’re doing and who your customers are?
While you could put your communication behind a registration box, your competitor still has the ability to register and find out what you and others are saying. To fight this, train yourself and your staff on what is sensitive material such as names of suppliers or financial records.
Create a few dummy accounts, if someone is e-mailing your members, you’ll get those e-mails as well.
Aren’t Social or Don’t Like Online Networking?
There’s just not that much “social” for you to give. You’re better with machines or computers, and people are hard to understand.
You don’t know how to be engaging, promotion is hard, and while you aren’t rude you’re just not a “people person”. Or you’re great in person, can charm the birds from the trees, people smile when you enter a room, but the online world is cold and impersonal.
In cases like this, you’d be better off outsourcing your social networking to someone familiar and comfortable with online promotion. Of course you will need to observe what your outside social promoter is doing. This will both improve your online skills and teach you what works online.
Most companies do well with a social network plan in place. It’s the current trend and this type of communication looks like it’s going to stick around for a very long time as communication devices continue to drop and spread out into the marketplace.
By avoiding some costly mistakes, you’ll have a social networking policy that helps and promotes instead of a liability even if you aren’t totally comfortable using it…yet.
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