Why Social Media?
People
Public - ation of conversation
Developing Strategies on how to Leverage Social media tools for Interior Designers (and related industries.)
You have a website,set up your Facebook page, created a Linkedin account, and signed up for twitter. You even set up a blog and maybe a YouTube account or started poscasting. Are you wondering why your phone isn’t ringing off the hook?
I talk to many people who intuitively know the importance of integrating social media tools with other offline marketing efforts. These same people then wonder, “how can I increase my business?” Your intuition has served you in the past, there is no reason to ignore it today, but these times call for a smarter approach.
A dramatic way to think about these tools is to think of a telephone. If you bought one, plugged it in, purchased a service and an ad in the phone book, would you sit back and wait for it to ring? No. You would go out and deliver your message, evangelize. Once you have a few customers, you would then ask them for referrals or testimonials. With social media, you will do these same things. Both online and offline. These tools can become a natural extension of your business and personal life, only in a way that helps you connect with many more people than offline alone.
One very important item to keep in mind in the process it that social media is about dialog and not broadcasting. It is more about conversation than publication. It is about developing relationships and most importantly developing relationships with key people who know you ,love you and will help you by spreading the love about you.
Tim Tracey, owner or a service called YouGottaCall and a friend suggested a blog post by Greg Sterling “Thoughts on Online and Offline Media” that included survey.
The Actual Survey by Buzfactor found that a recommendation has 15 times more influence on where a person shops and dines than advertising. STOP.You know this information but I think it deserves reflection. Fifteen times more influence than advertising.
So, if that is the case, why participate in social media? Meeting, building relationships with and sharing information between trusted friends is the essence of social media. By creating a comprehensive strategy to integrate social media tools into your daily life you can create a lead generation system. You can through the sharing of information, help others get to know who you are and create a wider network of folks who will recommend you for that next project.
