Getting your business started online

Arising from the questions and comments on my last piece, the most popular question seems to be “How do I get my business started on social media?”

This week’s article sheds more light on the first few steps to take if you are ready to take advantage of the use of social media or interested in getting better results out of your existing online presence.

Why should you be on social media?

Some business executives and entrepreneurs still find it a waste of time establishing a presence on social media. Some do not even feel the need to own a business website (we shall discuss that later), not to talk of setting up social media pages for their business. These are some of the reasons given:

•Only youths and unserious people have time to be on social media

•Social media is a waste of time as serious customers are more offline than online

•The decision makers in the big deals are not online

•There is no guarantee of return on investment on social media

Take into cognisance of the fact that millions of people are going social every year so much so that the Social Media Week, a widely celebrated global event, debuted in Lagos last year. It has also held across different countries this year.

Here are vital reasons why you should establish a social media presence for your business:

•More and more business executives are getting online and conducting deals via email and video platforms such as Skype and Google Hangout, which cut down expenses and deliver results.

•Establishing a social media presence helps you spend less on advertising offline like television ads and with better-targeted results. For businesses that cannot afford a huge advertising budget, social media advertising helps them reach a wide audience online in a short time with fewer resources. It also affords them the opportunity of monitoring their campaigns in real time.

•Social media encourages a two-way communication with your target audience, meaning you can monitor what others are saying about you, provide instant and robust customer service to clients, chat directly with potential customers and get more people recommending your business through word of mouth marketing.

•A social media presence allows you to meet a wider audience outside your locale if you own a big business with a wider geographic coverage or help you streamline your target market if your business services a narrower audience within your neighbourhood.  We will talk more about this later.

•You can also drive traffic to your online presence on social media and convert online visitors to paying customers. Experts refer to this as ‘lead conversion’.

There are more reasons to establish an online presence for your business. This brings us to the next question: When is the best time to establish a social media presence for your business?

The simple answer is the earlier, the better.

Many companies such as Coca Cola and business moguls like Richard Branson of the Virgin brand have established presence online for years and are now reaping the benefits. They have gathered a huge following for their brand and established authority as industry leaders. Social media may be inexpensive but it takes a lot of commitment, discipline, strategic insight and patience to find out what works and what does not, and ultimately, settles in a routine that will ensure the success of your business. In short, just as you have to spend money to buy what you want, the currency of social media is time. You have to spend time to get the desired results on social media.

So, if you have not gone social yet, the time to do it is NOW.

How can your business get started on social media?

Now that we have answered the ‘why’ and the ‘when’, it is time to get started.

First, determine the ultimate goal you wish to achieve going social. Would you like to increase the number of customers you have, get more people to recognise your personal brand as a thought leader or launch a new product? Your goals will help you determine what platform to be on and how to design an approach that works for you and your target market.

Second, be determined to dedicate a number of hours to getting the right results or outsourcing your social media management to a social media manager. As mentioned before, the currency of social media is time and you must be dedicated to discovering what works for you, because what works for A may not work for B. At first, it may be difficult getting the desired response, but as you settle into a routine, you may find your prospects looking forward to interacting with you as well.

Thirdly, look inward at your brand. What does your brand represent? Who is your target market? Where are they meeting on social media? How does your brand behave or how is it structured – is it a professional brand or down-to-earth brand; one-man small business or multi-national? What values do you hold? Your brand would usually give you pointers as to what platform would work best for you – LinkedIn, Blogging, Facebook, Twitter, among others.

In conclusion, you should be where your target market is, and most importantly, your brand should be easily recognisable online as it is offline. Pay attention to the details.

In subsequent articles, we will shed more light on the benefits of each social platform and which of them is good to enable to you take the first steps in going social. Let us continue the conversation on Twitter