Many businesses hear about the advantages of social media in terms of marketing their products or services, but some forget to look at other major benefits of social media beyond finding leads or making a sale.

Here are eight ways that businesses can use social media to learn more about themselves and their industry as well as get more involved with their clients and communities interested in what they have to offer.

1. Monitor Conversation About Themselves

There are many free ways to monitor what people are saying about your company through social media, including the following:

Google Alerts

Google Alerts will send you a daily digest email anytime your search terms come up in blogs, news, or other websites.

Social Mention

Social Mention monitors 100+ social media properties directly including: Twitter, Facebook, FriendFeed, YouTube, Digg, Google etc. You can have your mentions emailed to you daily.

Twitter Search

If you want to know real time what people are saying, you can setup a Twitter search in HootSuite, Tweetdeck, or just keep a RSS feed in your feed reader using Twitter search results. Include searches for your company, business owner, or unique product name.

Further reading: Set Up an Online Reputation Management Strategy That Wins You More Sales

A solid social media service could help you get the most of reputation management efforts.

2. Keep Up to Date on Their Industry

Along with keeping up with what is being said about your brand, as anyone with a business administration degree would tell you, you should also keep up to date on current events and news that affects your industry as a whole.

While there have been good company reactions to industry issues, such as pet food brands that assured their customers that their food was tested and 100% safe during the recalls and Toyota continuing to address their recalls assuring customers they are working to resolve the problems, I have seen some other fails where there was obviously no attention by the companies given to current events such as:

• Auto warranty companies continuing their usual advertising while stories of auto warranty scams were on the rise.
• A hotel chain in Hawaii sending out “last minute deals” about an hour before the tsunami was supposed to hit the islands.

If you’re keeping up with how the public feels about your industry, you can reformulate your next announcements and advertising to boost the confidence in your company even in the midst of a negative wave. In the above examples:

• The auto warranty companies could add facts to their advertisements which would prove their authenticity above the scammers so people could trust them.
• The hotel chain could have simply sent out updates on the conditions and reassure the public once the threat was over that it was safe enough to take advantage of their special rates.

3. Give Great Customer Service

One great way to use social media is for customer service. For example, if you have a Facebook Page setup, your customers might ask specific product questions.

Answering them right on the page not only gives them the info they want right away, but shows other fans / potential clients that you are a readily available to help, as well as provide an answer to a question that other clients might want to ask.

You can also encourage phone calls from your social media channels and set up your small business phone service to turn all those calls into the leads!

4. Provide Emergency Updates

Lately, the way to find out if something is not working is to make a quick search on Twitter. The last time I couldn’t get into my Gmail, I went straight over to Twitter to see if others were having the same problem or if it was just me – it was the former, so I knew there wasn’t an account issue.

Customer service is never more important than during times of crisis.

Since many people now turn to Twitter to voice their complaints and concerns, those that respond through the same media show both their followers and others who are watching the events unfold that they are interested in helping their followers quickly. It helps add a positive light to a bad situation.

5. Gain Customer Feedback and Opinion

Social media can be a great research tool. If your company has unveiled a new product or service, maybe your customers will be talking about what they think about it in real time.

I’m sure that Coca-Cola monitors any comments on their latest drinks to see if people are enjoying it or hating it, which affects whether they will continue to produce a specific flavor or try out a new one. You can also query your followers to ask them their opinion on a future product to get their insight before it even goes into development so you can create something that you know others will be interested in.

It is also a good idea to create polls on Facebook regularly to gain insight into your audience.

6. Move Positive Information to the Top

Reputation management via social media can be a great way to boost positive information about your business to the top of search results in an attempt to get negative results off of the list.

So if your company had a negative review placed on sites such as Rip Off Report or individual blogs, the best way to counter it is to have your company website, blog, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other social profiles ranking higher than that bad entry. It only takes ten strong, positive items to bump that bad one off of the first page.

7. Drive Traffic to Their Website

Social media can certainly help boost the traffic going to your website in a variety of ways. If you have a regularly updated corporate blog, you can post your blog articles on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and social bookmarking sites, which should help drive visitors to your post and then onward to your main site for products and services.

Also, you can monitor people talking about the products and services you offer and respond to them with your link if it helps answer their questions. Just recently, I mentioned migraines, and someone sent me an @mention with a link to learn more about natural homeopathic migraine remedies.

Social media is perfect for launching a new site as well as promoting an established one.

You just have to make sure that what you are sending will be absolutely helpful to the person you are replying to, and not look too much like a blatant advertisement (ie. maybe send a blog post link instead of a link to a product page unless some specifically says “I want to buy ___, where can I find it.”)

8. Create a Reference Library

Social bookmarking makes it easy to create a reference library of any news / press releases / mentions of your company.

Simply use your hashtag alerts to find the places online that talk about you, and use sites like Flipboard to bookmark them. This helps you keep track of all the talk about your company, as well as boost the article by giving it the bookmark.

More Tips on Social Media for Business

Looking for more ideas on how to use social networking for business? Check out this post on business social networking by a blogger whose focus is on helping small businesses use online marketing more efficiently and effectively.

Do you have a business that you use social media as an avenue to connect with clients? Or do you know of a business that does a great job using social media? Let us know in the comments!

By Kayla Matthews

Communication is central to running any successful business. From customer service to employee performance reviews, nearly every aspect of business relies on clear communication. As with many other areas, technology is providing new and improved ways to communicate.

Technological innovations have always driven improvements in business communication. Just as the telephone and email revolutionized business communication in their times, modern technology is revolutionizing it again. Advancements like blockchains and artificial intelligence (AI) are changing how you interact with employees and customers.

1. Gathering Customer Data

Data collection and analysis are the heart and soul of modern business. With communication tools like chatbots, you can gather customer data from your communication with them. You can then use this data to tailor future interactions with them on an individual level.

More than 90% of customers prefer interacting with brands that offer personalized experiences. The best way to provide personalization is by logging customer history and preferences. With data analytic technology, every instance of communication is a chance to improve future customer interactions.

2. Protecting Privacy

In the digital age, keeping conversation private is a growing concern. But just as advanced technology presents new threats to privacy, it also provides ways to protect it. The desire for secure communication is one of the driving forces behind blockchain adoption.

Blockchains are encrypted, decentralized ledgers of information. Unlike traditional forms of communication, blockchains aren’t subject to the prying eyes of governments or telecommunication companies. You can send data to a colleague on a blockchain to keep it private and unchangeable.

3. Expanding Remote Communication

Modern technology makes remote work and communication a more viable option. Services like video conferencing expand the possibilities of long-distance communication. Now you can meet coworkers or clients “face-to-face” without even being in the same room.

Today’s remote communication technology also provides increased flexibility. With platforms like Google Meets and Zoom, you can participate in group meetings from home with minimal setup. Communication, both with employees and customers, is more convenient and reliable than ever, even across long distances.

4. Automation Through AI

Artificial intelligence (AI) is one of the most promising technologies in the modern business world. It has applications in everything from logistics to organization, including communication. When businesses face staff shortages, they can use AI to take over customer relations.

AI-powered chatbots can hold natural and informative conversations, providing competitive customer service at any time. On top of being available around the clock, these systems can access customer data while speaking to customers. That way, they can provide relevant, personalized answers in real-time.

5. Increasing Collaboration

Business communication doesn’t just have to be clear and reliable, but it has to be thorough. Collaborative technologies like cloud computing enable you and your coworkers to communicate and collaborate across any distance. You can share documents through email, but on the cloud, you and your coworkers can edit them in the same place.

Other communication tools, like social media, allow you to collaborate more with consumers. You can interact with users on social sites to create or refine customer-centric experiences. By involving your consumer base, you improve your company image and offer more desirable products or experiences.

Improving Your Communication

In today’s day and age, flexible, thorough communication is a must. Novel communication technology allows companies to adjust to unforeseen circumstances like the coronavirus outbreak. Thanks to these technologies, businesses can shift to remote work with relative ease.

To stay competitive in today’s business world, you need to communicate better. To communicate better, you need to take advantage of the technology available to you. Implementing new services for both internal communication and customer service will help you stay ahead of the competition.

Variation is key. If you rely too heavily on one form of communication, you’ll be in trouble if it fails or becomes outdated. But with varied and forward-thinking technology adoption, you can improve and secure your communication all around.

 

 

About the Author: Kayla Matthews writes about communication and workplace productivity on her blog, Productivity Theory. Her work has also appeared on Talent Culture, MakeUseOf, The Muse and Fast Company.

Photo by Alexander Sinn on Unsplash