Can Social Media actually be used to bring in leads, opportunities and sales to your small business?

I often been told by clients and random people something like this:, Rachel ” I don’t think twitter and other social media will work for me”. When i hear this, my immediate reaction is – I’m confused because whatever you are selling, you are ultimately in the people business and social media is all about getting to know them right?

Ok so you want to know more people. Lets get real here.

Good business is built on relationships and that’s why you are using social media to do just that. Any business should want to dive where their customers are and genuinely want to get to know them. A prospect is more likely to buy from someone they know and trust. Social media tools allows us to connect online/offline and continue the relationship elsewhere.

So Here’s The Best Advice I Can Give You

Be holistic in your approach to social media, that’s the best way to do it. Don’t use auto machines or buy fake followers and likes. It is a waste of time and energy. You want to know people intimately and get feed back from them on what works and what doesn’t as well as hear about what they are craving for. Fake followers are,  well the name says it all. They are in-fact “fake followers”. You can’t sell them anything right, because they are fake. They could be someone’s dogs or iguana.

You may have found social media take all of your time out of your day with little reward in terms of extra sales. I feel for you with this, but success comes from consistently following a proven strategy your business must embrace as a whole. This strategy is quite simple, you need to become a “socialite” company. It’s time to ditch all the hype and marketing fuss and start talking online.

Can You Fake IT!

Absolutely not. One sale here and fake promotion after another isn’t what i would call being social, yet many entrepreneurs and local businesses seem to think otherwise. It’s easy to see businesses that don’t believe in social media yet they make a ridiculous attempt at using it. You can spot them easily by reading between the lines of their tweets and Facebook updates to tell whether they truly have a fire for what they do or just faking it.

Success in social media comes from adjusting to the current culture shift and ensuring everyone in the business understands how everything has changed. Your Brick and Mortar customer service needs to continue online. You need to be genuinely social in the way you interact on all of the different social media platforms or choose two to focus on and leave the rest for others.

Are You Wearing all the Hats in Your Business?

Don’t be a control freak. Entrepreneurs need to trust their employees (if you have any) or use the outside resources (such as elevate PR) to manage your social media activities and letting them interact with prospects and customers in real time.

Technology brought us closer than ever, we can have an engineer in India and a secretary in South Africa while the corporate office is located somewhere in the basement in Alaska. We can do the same with social media and socialize everywhere without losing our business focus. This is an exhilarating time to be online and i can assure you social media will work for you if you do it right.

Happy socializing. See you on twitter.