Social Media Services

So, realistically, how can social media benefit my company?

Become Human To Your Customers:
Now, more than ever people have a multitude of options when doing business. Customers want to know who they are dealing with and social media gives you this opportunity. Social media can function as a more personal face to the digital world letting your customers know what your concerns are, how you're succeeding in the market, what organizations or companies you are partnering with, or simply sharing images, videos and articles about your people and topics that accurately represent your brand.

Simple, Effective, Inexpensive Marketing:
Social media provides you a voice to millions of people, daily, for a nominal maintenance fee. Sharing content through social media immediately gains you access to all of the people in your network. Images, articles, videos and links are trackable and give you constant, organic, focus group testing. You are able to see what people like, what they will share with others and what their thoughts are on your brand and products.

Group Purchasing:
Unless you have been avoiding social media and traditional media like the plague for the past year, you've heard of services like Groupon and Living Social. These services provide massive discounts to consumers by connecting with business owners. You set a minimum number of buyers that have to purchase the item in order for them to receive the major discount. If that number of buyers isn't met Groupon or Living Social pull back the deal. In exchange for a one time deal, you receive a major influx of new (and return) customers.

Check-in Services:
Using check-in services like Foursquare and Gowalla, people are daily letting their friends and family know where they are going to eat, shop, and play. These services also allow you to provide discounts or specials to your most loyal customers. With 25% of people in America today using a smartphone like iPhone, Android, Blackberry, etc. (with projections for 2011 bringing that to 50%) and each one of these phones being able to use these services you can truly provide benefits and show appreciation to return customers as well as let your customers be your voice.