You have a Facebook page, and a million followers on Twitter putting you up there with Lady Gaga, but now you have to figure out what is the next big thing in social media you should use to promote your business.
Q: What's Next In Social Media?
When looking for the “next big thing” in social media, it is important to consider what social media is designed to do. In general, its purpose is to revolutionize the way we connect and interact with one another. Social media sites like Facebook center around a user profile, building off the old Myspace idea of profile pages. The next big thing in social media marketing is connecting with users. As internet users, we all see ads, and most simply consider them annoying, not worth the time. But social media can change that. By providing companies with the tools to directly interact with their customers, social media sites can allow companies to connect with their audience at an unprecedented level. It can basically democratize a business development. Because by interacting with their customers, businesses can allow them to make decisions concerning future projects or developments. “Crowdsourcing” has been wildly successful in many cases (ChaCha, Mechanical Turk, etc.) and can allow businesses the ability to respond more effectively to their customers wants and needs. Interaction is the next step. Go beyond simply advertising products, and get consumers involved in the creation process. Not only does it create a more marketable product, it also generates more interest in the average consumer than a status update or a brightly flashing ad.
Thanks to Walker Mills!
Video or social commerce (integrating shopping apps within your FB page, etc.) are two things that I really see businesses needing to utilize well in order to promote themselves with social media. Consumers are proving time and again that they desire interaction from the companies they show loyalty to and video is a great medium for that. Additionally, the less a consumer has to work in order to purchase your product, the better. You're starting to see more companies offer social commerce on their Facebook Pages and I see that trend only growing stronger.Its also important to note that social media for businesses shouldnt always be a numbers game. The point of this form of communication is the two-way interaction. Make sure that you continue to provide valuable content and engage your followers; dont just focus on the number of fans you have. Consider quality as much as you do quantity and you will build loyalty with your social consumers.
Thanks to Jessica Turner!
http://www.themodernconnection.com/
There will no doubt be some company that comes along who will inevitably become the next big dog for awhile. That being said I think the real future of social media begins when people start to realize that social media has nothing to do with the “Next Big Dog”. The real future begins when companies start to understand that social media is about people, building relationships and not trying to exploit the medium as another venue to market their products and services.
Thanks to Robert Richardson!
Within the next few years, it will become standard for all businesses to have a presence on Facebook and Twitter. The majority of businesses have already established themselves on these sites. Those who choose not to participate will miss out on something that is becoming main stream; it will be similar to a business not having their own website. Businesses are realizing that social media sites offer an extremely valuable and powerful resource and it would be detrimental not to tap into it. Because of the influx of businesses on social media sites, Facebook is becoming a search engine of its own. Since such a large quantity of businesses are registered on the site, people can use Facebook to search for all types of groups and services in their area. This is an efficient way to conduct searches because one can see the feedback they receive from the general public and how they interact with clients. Facebook and Twitter will become less of an option and more of a necessity for businesses worldwide.
Thanks to Samantha Kuchlik!
The next big thing in social media for the promotion of your business is the strategic use of LinkedIn for the following reasons: 1. You can see relationships that exist between your friends and their friends. 2. You and the information about your company are now keyword findable in the worlds largest business database. 3. You and your profile or “resume on steroids” will display your credibility and expertise. 4. LinkedIns users are the “worlds largest audience of affluent, influential professionals” (Source: LinkedIn.com) 5. A new business professional joins LinkedIn every second of every day from all over the world. 6. LinkedIns company profile section (also keyword and geographically searchable) has expanded to include careers, products, services and specific recommendations. 7. If a company standardizes the specific company information that each employee displays on his/her individual profile, the marketing power increases dramatically.
Thanks to Wayne Breitbarth!
The next big thing in Social Media is not adding yet another site to one's online résumé. I believe the next big thing is curatorship; there is a tremendous amount of information on the net, and now, the real task is to make use of said information. In order to glean something useful from the morass of information, there must be highly skilled editor/curator types who can organize all the bits of knowledge into a cohesive whole. Regardless of technological advances, highly-literate individuals are needed to make information useful, not overwhelming.
Thanks to Odilia Rivera Santos!
http://latinaauthor.blogspot.com/2011/06/social-media-marketing-and-getting.html
Email. It always comes back to email. How do people know if they've got new stuff to look at on Facebook or Twitter? Email. How do people follow up on products they've already bought? Email. What tool lets you build an ongoing relationship without getting caught up in someone's 1,500 Facebook friends? Email.
Thanks to Thursday Bram!