Reasons Your Prince George Small Business Should Use Social Media

1. Branding –

Create a recognizable identity for your product or service. This is extremely important for a Prince George small business.

2. Create a buzz for your Prince George small business –

Get the word out about your products and services in a way that promotes online conversation.

3. Online reputation management

Keep an eye on what other people and sites are saying about your name, company, or brand online – and fix any problems, if need be.

4. Establish yourself as an expert –

Use forums and message boards to answer questions professionally, honestly, and correctly, which will earn you respect as an expert in your niche. People will look to you for answers.

5. Word of mouth –

Customers need to trust before purchasing – people trust their friends and loved ones more than anyone else. So, if they hear from someone trustworthy about your product, chances are higher that they’ll buy. Market your products using word of mouth virtually.

6. Build relationships and become more personal –

Use a variety of social media, and you’ll build relationships with customers and potential customers. Trust comes through honesty and sincerity.

7. Open up the line of communication between business owner and millions of potential customers

– Millions of people who could possibly become customers? You could not have this easily in the offline world.

8. Small businesses can compete with the large companies –

In the past, this was very difficult with the advertising and marketing budgets of large companies. With the right type of viral social media, you could get an immense amount of traffic with quickly-growing natural links, and keep traffic coming for a long time.

9. Social networking with potential clients and customers from all over the globe –

With social networking sites such as Facebook, and Twitter, among many, many others, you can hold personal conversations with each of your customers. Tell them about new products, sales and coupons, suggestions and tips – the topics are endless.

10. Get great traffic for your Prince George small business

Not only great traffic…. but freakishly crazy amounts of traffic. For example, if one of your items becomes viral and makes it to the front page of Yahoo Buzz (a social news site), it could get you 100,000 to 1,000,000 viewers; from Digg around 2,000 to 60,000; and from Reddit around 2,500 to 30,000.

11. Much cheaper than traditional marketing and advertising –

Social media marketing shouldn’t cost a small business nearly as much as traditional advertising. And, if you do it yourself, it might not cost a dime. However, it will cost you time. Depending how much your time is worth, it might be worthwhile to hire someone to help with the social media marketing. But, all in all, social media
marketing is just a fraction of the cost of traditional marketing and advertising..

12. Your Prince George small business is more accessible –

An accessible company means a more trustworthy company.

13. Direct conversation to a specific niche –

There are so many social networking, social bookmarking, and social news sites that are dedicated to specific niches. You have the ability to speak directly to these people and not have all the other noise of unrelated topics getting in the way. If you are speaking their language, you have a better chance of them actually hearing what you are saying – and you’re getting the RIGHT KIND of following.

14. Provides another way for potential customers to find you –

If you’re not high enough in the search engines for potential customers to find you, they can still find you through social media. So, even if you’re not on the front page of Google, it doesn’t mean you can’t receive traffic. Social Media has the potential to send you TONS of traffic – when done properly

15. It’s a way to explain your Prince George small business

One of the reasons some businesses are skiddish about social media is because they’re afraid of negative comments. It’s possible to receive negative comments. But, social media provides the platform to explain, to make things right. The fact of the matter is – if someone has something negative to say they can say it. Ignoring them doesn’t stop the damage. But, when you reply, you are seen as a business owner who cares, who wants to make the customer happy, and that you’re human. Social media is a two-way conversation, so go ahead and defend yourself – just do it proactively.

16. Find out exactly what your customers want –

Social media is amazing in so many ways, as you can see from the last 18 reasons. But, what is so cool is that you don’t have to wonder what your customers want. You want to know what they want? Ask them on social media, and they’ll tell you.

17. Your customers can play an active role in your Prince George small business

Instead of focus groups, let your customers play an active role in your business. Let them offer suggestions, let them share their likes and dislikes – all on social media.You might find yourself ideas for new products and services you’d never have without them.

Bottom line – marketing is about getting out the word, engaging in conversations, taking suggestions, problem solving, educating your audience, and promoting your company, product, or service. One of the best ways for a Prince George small business to create buzz is through social media.