Once upon a time, customers could only get in touch with you by telephone, letter or by visiting your premises. If they were unhappy, they’d probably moan about you to a friend or two and you’d be non the wiser.

How times have changed. Now, if they’re unhappy they’ll tweet about it or post in on their Facebook page. Before you know it, the whole world will know they received bad service.

That’s why, as a business, it’s vital you’re using social media.

How social media can be used to your advantage

If there’s one thing everyone loves, it’s to talk. By listening to social media channels, you can learn a lot about your customers’ likes and dislikes. So you need to use that to your advantage.

1. Sales Department

The optimum time to sell to someone is when they’re ready to buy. Hitting on that golden moment isn’t easy. But monitoring social media channels will give you the advantage.

If you’re an electrical retailer and someone in your Twitter feed is asking advice on buying a new radio, you can respond and offer advice. That puts you in the right place at the right time.

2. Marketing Department

Listening to your target market will tell you whether your marketing materials are addressing the questions your customers are asking.

3. Customer Service

We’ve already looked at how an unhappy customer can use social media to vent their frustration. But imagine if you were monitoring Twitter for anyone mentioning your company name. You would be able to pick up the fact that there’s a problem and deal with it straightaway.

Then you would go from a disappointment to the best company in the world because you listened and put it right.

4. Research and Development

Eaves-dropping will tell you a lot about what people really want. But you can also use social media as a way of conducting customer research. Ask your customers what they want and give it to them.

5. Human Resources

Can social media really help with HR?

Yes, users fill out profiles showing their skills and experience (e.g. on LinkedIn). If you’re looking for someone with a particular skill, just search for them.

It’s amazing just how many ways social media can help businesses today. If you’re not already there, start using it today – your competitors are.

Yes, I know – if you could answer that, marketing your business would be a doddle. You’d be able to second guess precisely what they want, provide it for them and keep them happy forever.

That’s a nice dream but it will never be a reality.

The dilemma is that your products and services have to fit the needs of your customers – if they don’t, they won’t sell.

One of the biggest mistakes businesses make is to believe that their customers want what they want.

Let’s think about that for a second. I enjoy going to the gym, watching F1 and going out to dinner. So does that mean all my clients and indeed my friends like those things too? Probably not.

Your customers aren’t like you

However you market your business – through social media, website, brochures, networking etc. – if you base your activities on your beliefs rather than what your customers want, you could be in trouble.

To make your business a success you have to do some serious leg work and that means researching your market.

You have to find out:

• What they want
• What they’re willing to pay
• Where they hang out (to find the optimum marketing avenue)

When thinking about your social media marketing strategy research is vital to work out where your customers are and what platform they use the most.

Common marketing mistakes

Let’s start by looking at B2B companies. It is often perceived that their customers don’t ‘hang out’ on social media platforms. Well if you think about, the vast majority of companies are using social media these days so, yes, they are there – you’ve just got to find them.

Do you use Facebook? If you do, when do you update your status? Many companies add stuff during the day but the problem is most fans won’t log in until the evening. So if you want to generate a buzz and get some participation going on your page, you must update when your fans are about.

One more think about using Facebook, if someone ‘likes’ your page that’s not the same as opting in for your marketing emails. If you start bombarding them with unsolicited emails you’re going to lose them as fans very quickly.

Research, research, research  

It doesn’t matter what business you are in – IT, retail, telecoms, copywriting etc., you have to research your market to make sure your products and services match the needs of your target audience.

Don’t use guesswork – ask them or survey them and find out what they really want. Only then will your marketing hit the spot every time.