Social Media Networking-not just teenage hype anymore!
Posted by Tina O'Oconnell on Wed, Feb 17, 2010 @ 07:42 PM
The benefits of social media networking are very real and many online retail business owners are finding out just how many of the new connections, customers and dollars they are finding inside social media markets. They are also noticing just how hot they are to the bottom line.
Facebook claims that 50% of active users log into the site each day. That means 175 million users every 24 hours which has grown from 120 million users total last year. Twitter has 75 million user accounts but about 15 million are active with over 27.3 million tweets per day. Linked in a relatively new player in social media has over 50 million members. On all sites the actual user's median age is surprisingly 34 and an average time on the users site of choice is 39 minutes. This is a captive audience of people who have a good portion of the spending income online in their control.
So how do we get the friends, followers and dollars? Participation is the road to success, much like email marketing the content has to compel the reader. Just showing up will not get your blog or post the popular vote and you can have a ton of friends but unless they are clicking on, linking to and sharing your posts it is not going to make you a bundle. It will take an investment of time, research and posting.
You have to become the leading expert in your field who is willing to share that fresh and exciting knowledge with all the follower's, friends, link-in's and so on you can get. You will need to comment on other writer's comments, posts or blogs with great care; providing only well thought out feedback that also adds spice to the topic and brings them back to you. Be sure to drive your customer back with each online effort to your business using subtle links with key words, signing your name and website, adding images that link back to coupons and small hints and mentions of your company or product throughout the message.
Keep it simple at first -just answer a Linked-In's listed question or comment while your doing your homework. But always follow up later with more. Research the latest laws, issues and yes, hype about your business, products and competitors and share what you find to be the most compelling topics with your own spin. The one caution flag is to be careful not to get political. Although controversy can bring numbers it can bring a negative connotation of your online retail business with it.
The easiest way is to share information that will support a well known cause that factors into your ecommerce business. This will generate new and more importantly loyal customers. In the Healthcare ecommerce industry this is easy with American Heart Association (heart or stroke support), or Breast Cancer Support or in support of Elderly Home Care. Statistics show more people are directly affected or related to affected persons with these three conditions than any other health issues.
Be sure to share the work of researching and posting and responding with others, not just to lighten your workload but to keep the message and the perspective fresh. Monitor readership statistics to see what is getting the most return or "hits" and focus in on those areas. You can have full confidence this works and the effort is worth it as the proof is in the market today. Just look at Dell, Inc.; who in the last quarter of 2009 reported over $3-million dollars in computer product sales directly clicked through from posts on social media sites like Facebook. Wouldn't you like those results in your online retail site?