Being effective means being able to manage our time in a productive manner and achieving productive activities. Going by that understanding, social media is usually considered as a time waster.
One of the biggest challenges for small business owners is to quantify the return on investment, this includes social media activities.
It is even harder for those with decent success in their business without using social media to even comprehend any productive use of social media.
Social Media Is Overwhelming Without A Strategy
The amount of information you have available today on social media is simply overwhelming. So much has already been written about things you should do to build your brand and grow your business by leveraging the power of social media marketing and what not that it is impossible to read it all.
There is so much is information readily available explaining why you should get on Twitter, about having your own blog, having a content strategy, having a Facebook fan page, getting active on Google+ and so forth.
While the information available on social media is extremely helpful, it is also extremely intimidating when you don’t have an effective plan to use it.
When you already have your hands full with things to do just to take care of existing business, social media seems to be extra layer of activity to be added to your already heavy schedule.
Using Social Media For Things You Already Do
Considering all the implications, I thought I would suggest a number of ways you can use social media to do a better, more efficient job of accomplishing things you already do on a day-to-day basis.
Technology is supposed to reduce your overhead and give you more freedom – not the opposite.
There are at least 10 things you already do (or try to do) without using social media that I think you can be more effective doing when you begin to use social media:
1. Follow Up With Prospects
This is one of my favorite features of social media. When you go to a Chamber of Commerce or a networking event, you meet people, exchange contact information and at times, engage in a good conversation, right?
When you come back home, you know that you need to follow-up with a few of those people. But, that is old school and not very effective.
Instead, you can connect with them on Facebook or LinkedIn right away and following up becomes so much easier and instantaneous! You can also go old school. However, if you don’t get a proper response, the social media method definitely works much better!
2. Announcement Of A New Product/Service
When you launch a new business or add a new product/service to an existing one, you know how very resource intensive it can be just to let people know about it. You have to call people in your list, send letters to others and advertise on TV/Radio for rest of the world.
With social media, you can achieve some of these tasks in a less intimidating way. For example, you can get all your connections introduced to your product or service with just a few online posts. Now you have made it easier for them to help you reach out to even more people.
Plus, you can use social media advertising which is much more cost effective and way more targeted when compared with TV and Radio.
3. Invite People To Your Events
Just as discussed above, the process is the same. You can invite all your friends, family and others to an event with so much ease.
To invite people using traditional methods such as calling or sending letters, you would have to spend countless hours calling and money to print advertisements and pay for delivery. Today, you can short-cut the process and make sure everybody not only got the invitation but also responded in time.
4. Stay Engaged With Your Target Market
For small business owners, this is a big one. Staying in front of your customers and engaging with them and reminding them why they do business with you is a key ingredient to building marketing momentum.
Your blog may be a great place to put out a steady stream of useful information and success stories. Offering online discount programs, useful information, educational material relevant to your customers and prospects can create engagement and drive more business your way.
5. Keep An Eye On Your Competitors
As an entrepreneur, we all want to know who our competitors are and if they are doing better than us. We want to know how they are doing it.
In a traditional world, it is very difficult to spy on your competition because there are so many barriers.
However, whether or not you are leveraging the power of social media, chances are, your competitors are doing pretty well there.
Now social media also give you the opportunity to learn about their marketing secrets and their online strategies. You can spy on their customers and learn more about your own business through that experience.
Such an exceptional opportunity is only available online and social media gives you a tremendous opportunity to benefit from it.
6. Keep Up With Your Industry
The risk of being outdated and irrelevant is greater today than ever. Technology is changing every day; methods of doing business are changing so quickly. Chances are your industry is changing rapidly as well.
Keeping up with what’s happening in your industry is a task that is absolutely critical for every entrepreneur.
With social media powered monitoring services and the smart tools available in the marketplace, you can keep up with your industry and your competition almost in real time. All you need is a computer and an internet connection!
7. Provide A Better Customer Experience
As long as you have customers there is a need to keep them happy. They don’t just want a product or a service these days. Your customers are looking for a better experience.
Social media gives you an opportunity to reach out to your customers. Provide them an opportunity to ask you questions on Twitter, Facebook or Google+ and you will be amazed at how happy they feel when they find you responding them on social media platforms. Now, that is called giving your customers an experience!
It also saves a lot of time for you in not digging through emails for small things. Social media is instant and effective!
8. Connect With ‘Hard To Reach’ People
There was a time when reaching out to people with a lot of influence was very difficult. It was almost impossible to get your message across to a famous book author, a politician or any celebrity for that matter.
Not anymore! Now you have social media. It levels the playing field and you can reach out to anybody and communicate with them.
9. Find Joint Ventures
When you are looking to scale-up your business and you are looking for venture partners, social media gives you a larger reach. You know that one of the surest ways to attract potential partners is to build relationships through networking.
Using traditional methods, it is very hard to get this done unless you really invest a lot of time and energy in the search process.
However, in the social media dominated world, you have websites dedicated to help you find joint venture partners. You have more chances today of getting in touch with potential investors/partners because it is easy for you to reach out to anybody as discussed above.
10. Raise Funds For A Charity
Raising funds for charity is one of the easiest things to do when you are operating online. People want to help. People want to donate to good causes and all they are looking for is – you credibility as a non-profit organization.
As long as you have a genuine story and verifiable facts to show for your cause, you will be amazed at how easily you can raise funds with much less efforts as compared with the offline world.
Numerous funding sources such as GoFundMe.com have created great platforms for your fundraising needs. All you have to do is to be genuine, have a proper plan and ask online. People will fund your cause!
Conclusion
You do not have to be a social media guru to start using social media. You just have to start thinking. What are some of the things you are already doing in day-to-day life and how many of those things can get a boost through your activities on social media.
Once you have figured out these basic needs, social media becomes another tool in your arsenal to empower you to a greater degree of success in your venture.
Over To You – Share Your Thoughts
Are there any additional day-to-day activities of professionals which could benefit from online social media? Please add value by sharing your thoughts in the comments section below.
If you have any questions, please feel free to ask them either in the comments section below or through my Contact Me page. Thank you kindly!
Hey Gauraw,
Social media has eaten up a huge part of the Internet. Just stats revealing the number of subscribers on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc are pointers to the fact that not being active on SM means losing a lot.
the 10 ways are right on spot. These are things businesses do daily and of course SM can help us do these things better.
If you want to find new opportunities, new clients and expand, SM can still be very helpful.
Great read this morning buddy and thanks for an educative post
Hey Enstine!
Glad to hear from you and you are very welcome! I am glad you found this helpful although I based this post based on a discussion with a prospective client who thought that social media isn’t for them since they were already doing okay with their approach to business without it.
Have a great weekend since Friday is already here 🙂
Cheers!
Kumar
Wow! that was a good lesson you ditched out and thanks for sharing the experience with us here on your blog
Do have a wonderful weekend you too
Hi, Kumar,
Great points!!
Regarding raising funds for charity or business, etc…I would like to add https://www.indiegogo.com/. Please have a look, too.
Have a great weekend,
Charmant
I will definitely check them out Charmant. Thank you.
In fact, I am helping a friend raise some funds through social media and I think your suggestion will be very valuable for this peoject 🙂
Regards,
Kumar
hi Kumar Gaurav
nice article today i learn some thing new about social media. it will helpful with me thanks for sharing.
Hi Kumar,
I agree with you, if used and managed well enough, social media has many plus points – just as you mentioned. But just with anything that has the good attached to it, it also has the bad things that come along – like poor time management and not planning your work well or not being focused on your work.
You know I recently wrote a post on the social media problems and solutions most people face. However, there are many who do well without a social media presence, like Yaro mentioned in his recent interview (hope you heard/read the last part), where he himself says he’s not that active, besides just the basic sharing. But he believes in paid advt and that helps he says. Well, perhaps they have a huge email list or other opt-ins and ways to bring in the masses, reach out, and connect with people, which everyone doesn’t -so depends a great deal on how and where you manage things.
Thanks for sharing. Have a nice weekend 🙂
Yes Harleena,
Yaro did say that and I don’t learn that from him because he is old school in that aspect. Plus, he already was rich and famous before social media arrived and therefore he was too big to fail.
For example, Seth Godin writes blog posts which are most of the time less than even 100 words. But, if you and I start writing 2-3 sentence long blog posts, imaging what happens to our SEO and traffic. We can’t learn those things from them because they have risen above the clouds and so, whatever they do, they will find their way to soar due to their connections.
For me, I need to build those connections and I am not a CEO of a fortune 500 company or a New York Times bestseller. I also didn’t make millions of dollars in business using traditional methods. So, I need to leverage Social Media if I want to have a shot at success some of these folks have. I mean just think about it. Even politicians in India are garnering votes through Social Media. Can we afford to ignore for business? I don’t think so!
And yes, I remember your post and my stand remains the same. Great powers come with great responsibility. Social Media is very powerful and therefore we need to have discipline while using it. We need a coach, a guide, a system to leverage it’s true power to our benefit. If not, yes, we may slip a bit here and there. But, I still prefer to take that chance than being afraid of making mistakes and not using it at all 🙂
What do you say?
Regards,
Kumar
Kumar,
I like your site.
What do you think is most crucial to your long term strategy/success? Curious to hear your answer. 🙂
Rob
Rob,
Your comment seems totally off topic, don’t you think? You should use “contact-me” page for these type of questions and if you have a question about the post you are commenting at, you should be asking that question here.
That’s my long term success strategy. Be genuine. Care about other people. Build genuine relationships.
Cheers!
Lol thanks for your genuine response. Next time I’ll be sure to communicate on your terms.
Hello Kumar,
This is quite an educative post…such smart thinking, when successfully employed, will surely save serious time that would otherwise be wasted.
I employ a few of the points mentioned here myself. However, many of the points are quite novel and I must appreciate your originality.
Always,
Terungwa
Hi Kumar,
I don’t know exactly what Event Invitations you’re referring to, but one of the most annoying Facebook & Google+ features is the event invitation notification. Weight loss events, new moms events (!), fake events (bla bla + a disguised affiliate link), and so on. I’m sick of them!
Everyone sends random invitations. That’s why even if now I receive one targeted, genuine and appropriate invitation I’ll not take it into consideration. There’s too much garbage out there and usually checking what an event is about… is a waste of time. So… my rule is simple…. Send me an event invitation and I’ll mute you (on G+). A similar rule is applied on FB.
Hi Adrian,
No! I am not talking about that kind of invitation and that is more of a spamming than an invitation more often. Plus, it depends on how you are related to the person inviting you.
We use Facebook and Google+ events very effectively within my organization. We do conference calls, invite people to birthday events, business grand openings and things of that nature often and when one of those invitations come to me, I don’t ignore. In fact, it is ethically wrong to do so if I get one of those events from people I know.
For example, when we do conference calls for my team, we setup such an event, we invite people who should be invited from my team and people are obligated to respond and it works great. We exactly know who is coming and who is not without spending hours calling people and doing follow up. Yes, there are always people who still need a follow up call just to tell them that they should check the event details and respond, but that is always a minority.
So no. The type of events and invitations we do, work great because we also use common sense. We know who it should go to and who should not be aware of it. That is the reason you never received any invitation from me till now, right? 🙂
Cheers!
Kumar
Hi Kumar,
I got your point. I think that it’s important also the way you send these invitations. [“you” doesn’t necessarily refer to you and your team – it’s addressed to your readers mainly because that section of your article is very generic]
If you send the invitations using exactly the same way the spammers and the regular marketers use, then you may fail. That’s because the invitation may be lost in a sea of garbage. Remember my previous comment – “even if now I receive one targeted, genuine and appropriate invitation I’ll not take it into consideration”. I trained myself not to read these invitations, exactly the same way some people trained themselves not to see banners.
My point is that due to the large amount of spam and stupid invitations, you need to do it differently. For example, on G+ you can write a private post and tag the persons you want to invite. Not random persons, not all your followers, not the circle “Internet Marketing Friends”, but only selected persons, your team, etc.
Hey Kumar,
I do have to say that number 1 is the main reason why I chose to come up social media versus to go to networking events. It’s much easier and frees up more time for me. Plus being the introvert doesn’t help me on social events like that either LOL. But I do see social media, as you mentioned here, as a convenient way to maintain contact with those that are in your niche as well as the consumers that are interested in what you’re marketing!
This was a great breakdown! Thanks for sharing and have a great weekend!
You are very welcome Sherman! Glad you liked the ideas. Good luck to you as you are marching ahead with your social media marketing 🙂
Hi Kumar,
A wonderful list! Sure social media has changed the way we work. Making use of them, we can now perform and execute tasks and functions much more efficiently. This list has mentioned some such tasks which can be performed using social media.
Going through the list, I can say that personally, #7 is something that I can relate to very well. You see, some time before, I was actively pursuing affiliate marketing campaigns. So, often, I’d allow ‘would be buyers’ to add me as their friend on Facebook.
I allowed them to chat with me on Facebook and helped them solve their problems on the social media site. Facebook made seamless communication possible. And this resulted in good customer experience and it played a huge role in increasing my affiliate stats! 🙂
#4, staying engaged with the target market is also a use that I’m familiar of.
Good list! 🙂
Arun
Hello Arun,
The experience you shared about #7 holds the same truth even in my case. I have garnered many awesome clients because of Facebook and allowing people to get in touch with me using that channel.
Isn’t it so awesome that we are able to do that?
Thank you for sharing your story!
Regards,
Kumar
Hi Kumar,
Great post and interesting points. I always want to step up my game on social media and although I am on several networks, it doesn’t seem to do much in terms of sales. Building relationships – yes. Now, I’ve got to connect in such a way to convert. I’m going to take a good look at some of your points and determine what else I need to do to be more effective in social media.
Thanks for the info.
Barbara
Hey kumar,
Great content and Yes, social media really plays an important role thee days as it helps in promoting our blog and also drives traffic to our blog but for this we have to use it in proper manner. Social media helps us in connecting with people of our niche and we can make relations with other. These tips really helps us to using social media with right ways.
Hello Kumar Gauraw,
This is a really nice article for Social media!!!!!!!
through this Social media techniques we are interacting so many peoples and getting all world information.
I am agree with all your views about social media.
Thanks for sharing!!!!!
Keep it up
Hey Kumar,
Sorry I’m late getting by here, darn busy week but we’re on to a new one right!
I know that if your target audience hangs out on social media and you’re not doing some of what you shared then you definitely are missing out. Like a few people mentioned here in the comments as well, those that already are successful usually don’t even need social media at this point but for all the rest of us who are always wanting more prospects and customers, absolutely.
Social media is just a great way to connect with even more people so I would hope that using some of the methods you shared here would be something that they would at least consider. I hope that the client of yours who thought it’s not important will reconsider after reading this.
Great share Kumar, thanks and I’ll be sure to spread the word as well.
~Adrienne
Hi Kumar,
I love Social Media! But…there is a very disciplined way I stay on it. I don’t like to waste time. I really do stick to my DMO schedule and find it works.
I spend most of my time with my target market. Focusing on my list, constantly building it. Also, I spend time with my competitors. I watch like an owl in the night what they are doing and check and see if I’m up to par.
I rather build strong relationships with my customers and spend more time with them, then I would on Social Media schmoozing. I use Social Media as a way to incorporate my business.
-Donna
Wow Kumar!
This is an excellent think outside the box type of post. You offer ten excellent tips. Particularly tips
#’s 1,3,4-7 & 10.
They all seem to do exactly as you point out; they lend themselves extremely well, to what we’re already doing on
a daily basis!
Because as you also point out, if you’re not careful and don’t have a specific plan going in, your time on social
media can quickly become a major time suck!
This post really gets you thinking the right way about how and what you invest your time doing on social media!
Thanks for sharing it!!
Hi Mark,
Glad to hear from you again and thank you for your wonderful words of appreciation.
I am glad to know you found some good points in the post.
Have a great day my friend!
Regards,
Kumar
Hi Kumar great post it is.
I learn new thing here in this post.
great ideas to use social media network. thanks for sharing.
Hello Gauraw,
Great post I’d say, You are right about the social media which is very useful for most of the stuff we do. Like the example you’ve listed above “announcement of new products/services” as this would surely get lot of exposure from social media.
Thanks
Thanks for the insightful post Gauraw. Social media has its own pros and cons. I have got first business for my blog on Facebook only. Till now social media has done better than it has done bad for me. Keep writing this kind of post mate.
Hello Gauraw,
Well-written post. Definitely enjoy reading and got more encouragement to use social media. Thanks for the information man 😀
Hi Guaraw,
Nice post as always!!! One thing I notice from your you is that you never disappoint your readers. Yeah social media have their own advantages and disadvantages but we never neglect it’s use in SEO. Social media is always prov their presence as a power booster for your site.
Regards!!!
Bhavesh
Great point Bhavesh! Thank you for sharing and adding value.
Have a great week!
Your always welcome Kumar..I would love to share my insights…