Leveraging social media to grow your business

February 21st, 2014
Leveraging social media to grow your business

By Naomi Dolin-Aubertin

Last week, I posted about the importance of using hashtags to engage with a consumer audience. I wrote about how at New York Fashion Week, social currency was as good as cash to some retailers. Many companies are utilizing social media to drive consumer interest and increase sales of their product or service and some aren't as obvious as you think.

Take for instance an email that landed in my inbox in December of last year entitled "How The Container Store is using Pinterest to drive traffic and sales." The email featured two case studies of how two very different businesses, a large retailer and a local interior designer, were using Pinterest as a means of driving business. "From putting Pinterest labels on the most popular products in a store to embedding Pin It buttons in email marketing, businesses are always coming up with new ways of using Pinterest to help customers." Pinterest is a great way, not only to get customers talking about your product, but also to see what they and others in your industry are talking about. And other sites like Keep, even allow users to curate collections of items they want or mean to buy. 

Twitter, is another great place to connect with consumers on the Internet. As I discussed in my last post, the key to engaging with the global conversation is the proper use of hashtags. That being said, to the Twitter illiterate, a Twitter feed can often be an overwhelming place. If your marketplace is likely to be Twitter savvy, by all means, tweet away; otherwise, stick to "slower" means of communication. We can be found @DirectNetworks

Much has been debated about the overall effectiveness of a business' presence on Facebook. On the one hand, it has millions of users, making it a potentially lucrative market. On the other, many people use Facebook to interact with their friends and family and may skip obviously business-related posts. Add to this that only between 1% and 5% of people who have "liked" a page actually receive updates from that page in most cases. That being said, it is a great place to connect with your audience on a personal level, see holiday photo stage left. The bottom line of any social media strategy is to know your audience and to build a strategy for interacting with that audience that will earn you their likes. If you consistently put out relevant content that interests your users, you will cultivate a better overall experience and can make Facebook work for you. 

One of the best places to connect with your professional network is through LinkedIn. Billed as the world's largest professional network, it is also host to a number of insights and advice from leaders in your industry. LinkedIn's Pulse offers many useful articles and news; Groups offers you the ability to connect to those with similar interests. The beauty of LinkedIn lies in your ability to build a network based upon your degree of connection with various individuals, allowing you to interact with layers of connections based on who you know. It is networking, streamlined by the Internet.

Depending on your audience, you can also look at sites such as Google+, Instagram, Blogger, Flickr, Tumblr or a host of others. The important thing is to spend your time and resources where you know you can best reach your target market.

 


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