Would you ignore 75 percent of your customers?

Use the Axia PR social media e-book to ensure you’re doing everything to reach consumers

Social media is not just for college students anymore; it is big business. Understanding best practices for this tool and how it can affect your bottom line may help you jump ahead of the competition.

Axia PR’s e-book The Essential Social Media Management Guide can show you how to best utilize social media for reputation management, search results rankings and customer engagement. Download it today to help with your social media efforts.

What you will learn from this e-book

• What days and times you should post on social media
  For example, you may not have known that most retweets are sent at night, so you should make sure you plan your posts with this in mind.

• The best channels to use for the specific type of information you want to distribute
  For instance, Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter drive the most general traffic, but LinkedIn is fast becoming the network of choice for business and finding qualified job candidates.

• The best practices for reaching your target audiences
  You may not be aware that there is an “unofficial” time limit for companies to respond on Twitter, with most users reporting that they expect responses in an hour or less.

Social media affects your business

Even if your company doesn’t use social media, you can bet that your customers do. They follow, share, tweet, link, chat, post and pin. According to the PEW Research Center, approximately 75 percent of adults who are active online use social media. Almost half of those who own cell phones use them for social networking sites (and who doesn’t own a cell phone these days?). Young people, the highly educated and those with higher household incomes are most likely to access the Internet and social media through smart devices.

Business today thrives on building relationships with customers. More often than not, your customers are on social media, so if you’re not effectively engaging them through this medium, you may as well be ignoring them altogether.

In fact, in a recent survey, more than 70 percent of respondents reported that they access corporate press releases as part of their social media behavior. More than half of those participating said they look to social media for breaking news and updates more than television news sources.

It is no longer possible to sell in the traditional way, where you do all the talking and expect consumers to purchase based only on your spiel. Now you must connect with your target audiences at each stage of the sales cycle. They want to know your story as well as get more information, have a dialogue, get opportunities for input and see value-added content. One of the best ways to accomplish all this is through social media.

You may also have heard that Google and Twitter are renewing their agreement which allows the Twitter stream to show up on Google searches. This means that when customers share information about your company, positive or negative, it will appear when someone searches for your business name. This means that social media platforms now have a direct effect on how high your company appears in a search.

Additionally, negative information travels at light speed on social media. Any little misstep, such as a bad review or accidental text blast, has the potential to blow up and go viral. Therefore, you must closely monitor your social media presence, as well as anyone who has permission to use it on your company’s behalf.

How a PR firm can be valuable

The Essential Social Media Management Guide is packed with the tools and tips you need to maximize your social media efforts. Download it today or give us a call to learn how we can manage your social media campaigns and increase your profitability.

Lisa Goldsberry is a writer for Axia Public Relations with more than 15 years of public relations experience. She specializes in business, higher education and technology PR. Connect with Axia Public Relations on Twitter @axiapr.