The presence of social media is being blamed for just about everything—from depression to the downfall of Western civilization if you believe what some people have to say. This is a bit much, but it can be a business tool worth using if you leverage it the right way. People talk about social media for business all the time, but let’s be realistic. Can Instagram followers write a check for you? Do retweets get converted to USD? No, but that doesn’t mean that you should ignore them either. Instead, think about how you can use them to go into traditional business relationships, the type that tend to earn you more in the end.
Whether they’re through social media or not, relationships are key to business due to the trust factor. Trust in this case doesn’t necessarily mean trusting your life or business with someone; it’s just as simple as being known and having it clear what your operations are. For example, something as simple as making an appearance and having someone say they already know you from a blog post or e-book or something like that.
Why does this matter? Potential clients don’t want any added uncertainty where they are choosing to work with. For example, if you work in immigration advertising, your customer base is already approaching things from a position of uncertainty. They need to know that the jobs they work for will pay them a decent wage and provide a potential pathway to citizenship. That’s a lot of trust you need to communicate through your ads.
There are other more practical reasons to and build relationships in business. For example, let’s talk B2B partnerships. For one, you may need a certain supplier or service to provide you with something or to delegate a task that you don’t have time or skills to work on. Keep an eye out for brands like this in your social media, as you don’t want any uncertainty when it comes to who you are working it.
So we know that social media matters for presence, and presence matters for trust. How do you make this happen? For many companies, having a decent social media presence is a bit much to handle on your own, so they either bring on a new member of staff or hire someone to run social media operations for them. In some cases, the function of this position may vary. If more established, it may be a matter of simply finding ways to interact with customers. Other people may be tasked with actually creating the platforms and coming up with a strategy. This will likely cost you more.
