As business owners social networking is a great tool to have to reach prospective clients, to gain more online presence, and to keep people aware of the product or service you provide. But there are two reasons why most business owners fail miserably at social networking sites, the first is being anti-social on a social network, uh duh? and the next one is over selling your product or service. Of course there is no real magic potion to how people will respond to your services online, but experience has showed me that these two reasons kills business for small entrepreneurs every time.
Do we really connect or relate to people who are anti-social? would we realistically choose their services, uh no, and why not? Well when people are buying a product or service, they are looking for outstanding customer service, this is the key that will drives our business, we take that so mildly, but if we do not have good customer service skills to communicate, or we decide we don't have time to socialize (I note again, on a social network, duh!) we will not be as successful as we would like to be on these sites.
Sure people may like what we sell, and they may even befriend us on sites like facebook or My Space, but do we ever here from them again? or do we have a hint or clue that they are atleast interested in what we have to offer? We cannot afford to take such risks as ignoring people as small business owners, we are not successful enough to ignore people, at least not yet, "giggles", and neither should big businesses, because many have eventually failed because of poor servicing themselves.
This does not mean that we have to talk our lives away online, after all we are running businesses, but we should be in enough connection with our customers or clients where they feel comfortable enough to at least approach us, and eventually want to utilize our services. And never understimate the value of a person, we don't know who they are connected to, that may drive your business sales through the roof, all because we took a little time out to connect with them, and then find out their first cousin is "LL Cool J", who happens to be looking for what you are selling, this has really happened to business owners with online social sites.
And please don't over kill your product or service by posting it 500 times a day, it just becomes, well, I'll just say it, annoying. We should have a strategy as to how we blend and balance our business with socializing, that's the whole point isn't it? Again this is for those of us who say we are "only" posting our services or business to be seen, we can run an ad in the newspaper for that, where are the kind words to newcomers? taking two minutes to say hi to an old buddy? and this may kill us but, actually speaking or responding back to someone who has spoken to us, I know too much huh? LOL! And Lastly, if we take time and check it out, most of the bigger and more successful businesses, make it a point to socialize with their customers, they may not get to everyone, but it does show character. "good products or services will get us customers, but good customer service skills keeps them coming back for more!"
Do we really connect or relate to people who are anti-social? would we realistically choose their services, uh no, and why not? Well when people are buying a product or service, they are looking for outstanding customer service, this is the key that will drives our business, we take that so mildly, but if we do not have good customer service skills to communicate, or we decide we don't have time to socialize (I note again, on a social network, duh!) we will not be as successful as we would like to be on these sites.
Sure people may like what we sell, and they may even befriend us on sites like facebook or My Space, but do we ever here from them again? or do we have a hint or clue that they are atleast interested in what we have to offer? We cannot afford to take such risks as ignoring people as small business owners, we are not successful enough to ignore people, at least not yet, "giggles", and neither should big businesses, because many have eventually failed because of poor servicing themselves.
This does not mean that we have to talk our lives away online, after all we are running businesses, but we should be in enough connection with our customers or clients where they feel comfortable enough to at least approach us, and eventually want to utilize our services. And never understimate the value of a person, we don't know who they are connected to, that may drive your business sales through the roof, all because we took a little time out to connect with them, and then find out their first cousin is "LL Cool J", who happens to be looking for what you are selling, this has really happened to business owners with online social sites.
And please don't over kill your product or service by posting it 500 times a day, it just becomes, well, I'll just say it, annoying. We should have a strategy as to how we blend and balance our business with socializing, that's the whole point isn't it? Again this is for those of us who say we are "only" posting our services or business to be seen, we can run an ad in the newspaper for that, where are the kind words to newcomers? taking two minutes to say hi to an old buddy? and this may kill us but, actually speaking or responding back to someone who has spoken to us, I know too much huh? LOL! And Lastly, if we take time and check it out, most of the bigger and more successful businesses, make it a point to socialize with their customers, they may not get to everyone, but it does show character. "good products or services will get us customers, but good customer service skills keeps them coming back for more!"
