Post #10: Online Presence and Social Media

Social media is the way for an online business to hold the door open for a customer, or ask them about their day. It’s the way to make your company have a friendly, likable face when you can’t have face to face interactions with your customers. It also lets you reach out and find new customers with ease. The first step in making a good online presence for your business is to consider where your target demographic spends most of its time. Are they older, and more likely to access blogs or podcasts? Or are they younger and on microblogging sites like Instagram and Twitter? Its best to find what niche will give you the most success before you pour hours into all social media equally, when you could spend more time focusing on the ones that will bring you back the most customers. Social media makes it easy to advertise promotions or sales to bring in new customers, but its important to be careful that it won’t just draw in one time deal seekers. Its also important to monitor how people are interacting with your social media. Good reviews can be wonderful for your company, but bad ones can ruin it. For me personally, if there is any more than a 10-1 ratio on good to bad reviews, I will typically avoid a product or service. When you get a bad review, its important to professionally respond, whether publicly or privately, and figure out why your customer was so unsatisfied. Social media also allows you to have a link back to your website from a reputable source, and can boost your website in search results.