It’s fair to say that social media has changed the business landscape for good. Having a social media presence for a business is increasingly becoming the norm, rather than being an exception.
Social web has well and truly arrived and it’s not just the large scale enterprises, SMEs are hopping on to the social media bandwagon to connect with their customers as well. Most interestingly, social media opens up several avenues and opportunities for companies to expand their footprint and win new business.
Customers Wins Using Social Networking
Most businesses don’t just see social media as a means to keep in touch with their existing customers alone, it is now viewed as a unique channel to reach out to prospect customers and win new business.
Several businesses set aside a significant proportion of their marketing budgets to social networking activities – be it launching a new product promotion page on Facebook or creating a Twitter campaign. Social Media is now a mainstream business tool with a low upfront cost and quick ROI.
In July this year, Regus published an interesting study which revealed that nearly 35 percent of U.S. businesses have used social media to win new business. The survey focused not only on whether businesses achieved any customer wins using social networking, but also whether they believed the channel was effective enough to be awarded its own portion of marketing budget. And I’m pleased to say that the results augur well for a bright future of social media in the business world.
Of course, the “one size fits all” approach doesn’t work in the business world. Many critics would argue that it’s difficult to adopt social media for one and all business. While that’s true, the high-degree of flexibility is social media’s true USP.
Most people consider LinkedIn as a purely professional network. However, in the last few months, LinkedIn has introduced several new features such as the ability to follow companies, like status updates and comment on other user status which make it a perfect hybrid of a social + professional network.
Building business contacts is often the first and the most crucial step in winning a new business. LinkedIn lets you add new connections either through the search feature or by asking others to refer you. Equally important is the aspect of being able to re-establish contact with some of your old colleagues and existing connections to tap a new potential business opportunity.
How Social Media Can Help You Win A New Business?
Coming back to the original question – How social media can help you win a new business? For a start, social media is a great aid in serving your existing customers well. It has a widespread instant reach and is faster than most other communication media.
Social Media helps you improve on what you do best, thereby boosting your business prospects.
Wrap-up
Is Social Media only effective for boosting an existing business or does it work just as well for winning new business? What do you think? Hit the Comments below to share – it’s much appreciated.
