How Social Media Can Help Business

Social media, the new frontier of Internet marketing, can take a number of forms: a blog, an e-mail campaign, even an instant message.

But which social media option best applies to specialty CE retailers? Here's an overview of some of the more popular Web vehicles.

E-Newsletters

Heartland Technology Solutions is a business-to-business technology provider based in Joplin, Mo. It has offered its e-newsletter service to small- and medium-sized business for nearly 10 years.

COO Jane Cage says Heartland’s 200 newsletter clients use e-newsletters to “cultivate ongoing relationships” with their respective customers.

Heartland makes a distinction between e-newsletters and promotional materials. “There is very little advertising in these [e-mail newsletters],” she says, “and more education and product awareness.”

Heartland also has arrangements with vendors that allow her to take articles, while other vendors submit articles. "And if someone writes something that we think someone else would include [in their e-newsletter], we ask about that.”

Heartland rarely runs an entire article in the body of an e-newsletter. This will increase the click-through on the e-newsletter and enable further interaction. Cage offers three keys for e-newsletter creation:

Be Consistent — To send out a “monthly” e-mail in January and not another until November “says something about how committed you are."

Don’t Advertise — “Advertising gets caught in my spam filter. We don’t say ‘sale’ or ‘pre-buy.' Those words are being filtered.”

Think of the Reader — The reader’s time is valuable to them. So, don’t waste it with irrelevant material. “You need to look for the kinds of articles that are appealing to your audience. And don’t ever send one with a typo or a grammatical error.”

Blogs

There are a number of reasons to maintain a blog. One reason is that a blog can increase your Web presence. A Google search of your blog topic or your company name, for example, might turn Web surfers onto your site.

A blog also enables you to educate your reader. You can let prospects know about such things as the importance of power management. Your blog can improve the public’s perception of your expertise, too, and help establish you as a “voice in the field.”

There are countless methods for starting a blog. Some popular, simple sites walk bloggers through the set-up process, including Blogger, TypePad and WordPress.

Sites like Reddit, Mixx and Digg make it easy to share your blogs with readers, while sites like Technorati make it easy to search blogs on any topic.

Social Networks

LinkedIn is a popular networking site for professionals. Like most social networking sites, it allows a registered user to create a profile, join groups, add contacts and communicate with other members.

LinkedIn has the unique distinction of being a social site for the career-minded — and in the middle of a recession, that has made it a very popular site among pros in nearly every industry. According to Fortune magazine, traffic on the site has increased from 3.3 million users in February 2008 to 6.9 million in February 2009.

Social networking sites present opportunities to CE pros in educating clients and prospects, furthering brand awareness and learning about consumer tastes and trends. These sites provide a forum for posting materials, collecting testimonials and generating referrals and leads.

The question is: What’s the ROI? Spending 10 hours a week networking on Facebook or MySpace may not yield a single lead. On the other hand, it just might.

Frogloop offers a handy “ROI Calculator” for would-be social networkers to consult before determining an online strategy. While the calculator is geared toward non-profit organizations, it will nevertheless point you in the right direction.

Review & Reference Sites

Social media opportunities are endless. It’s about putting yourself out there to increase the odds of being in the right place at the right time.

If you don’t have time to maintain an e-newsletter, a blog or a profile on a networking site profile, there are other vehicles worth mulling over.

Posting sites, like Flickr and YouTube, enable you to upload images and video. Post a high-resolution image of a Neat-O! installation or a video that shows motorized shades in action, for example. Then refer clients (or the press) to those sites where they’ll be able to see it (or download it) for themselves.

Blurb and Lulu make self-publishing easy. Want to create a downloadable PDF, chock full of attractive installation photos and detailed product shots? How about a glossy-paged “bragging book” for home theater clients? These sites make that easy.

The social media opportunities available to business owners today can be overwhelming, but they can also be lucrative. Don’t be anti-social media. Take small steps toward becoming comfortable with what’s available, and employ those solutions that you understand best.