Every company needs social media to engage with its customers who are the backbone for every business. A company can only grow if it respects the sentiments of customers. However, social media is even more important for companies providing professional services. Actually, companies were a bit late to realize the importance of this medium, but now they are picking up momentum. These days, professional services companies have started maintaining a social media department.
Social Media is Essential for Growth
Some companies have taken initiative and developed excellent strategies. However, the slow start of companies towards this key fact has more to do with their limited understanding of how social media can be beneficial for providing professional services. It is a good thing now people’s attitude towards social media is changing. The trend is not very popular, but slowly companies have come to realize that social media is here to stay.
Companies have different opinions when it comes to evaluating the importance of social networking sites for the growth of the business. Some think it is the best form of communication with customers while others think that since everybody is doing it, they should do it as well. At the same time, there are companies that find social media just a waste of time and doing everything in their capacity to keep it at a distance.
For consumer-based companies, the centrality of social channels may be the old news, but for professional services companies, it is still a new concept. There are a lot of companies that think that social networking is just about Facebook, and Instagram where kids spend time to keep themselves amused. They also think it is not a great idea to allow their staff a free hand on a medium like Twitter, as it might give sleepless nights to the compliance team.
Of late professional service companies have finally come to realize that behind all that hoopla, there might be something to be gained from social media. As a matter of fact, there is a lot to be gained if you do it the right way. For example, you can convert your contacts into brand advocates.
Get the Right Team
The most important requirement for leveraging social media for business is your team. The general thinking is that anyone can handle these networking sites because it does not need a particular skill. That is a wrong notion. It is essentially a team effort, and you need to choose every member with a lot of care. Therefore, ideally, your team should consist of people with IT, legal, and compliance background.
Having compliance and legal experts in your team will help you to understand regulatory concerns for social media, while IT will take care of applications and issues related to online security. It will be your job to explain to your steering group your expectations from them. Every organization has different goals and objectives, and the social media team should always keep that in mind. Their every effort should be channelized in that direction.
Strategy, strategy, and more strategy
Once you have set up your team, you need to decide what you need to do next. First, you should decide which social platforms will best suit your objectives. There are innumerable channels like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, and LinkedIn among popular channels. So, you need to find out which particular channels will give you the desired results. Besides there are homegrown channels too like Vero, Share chat, and Connect app. You basically need such platforms that give you the best professional match for the results you are looking for.
Ideally, you should go slow as there is no need to do everything at once, especially when you are just starting out. The best strategy should include the following:
Social Listening is essentially about social monitoring and reporting
– Which people are talking about you?
– On Which platforms are they talking?
– What are they talking about?
– Who are other people participating in that talk?
– Are you in a position to control the conversation?
Research and Understand
-Popular trends
– Which strategies you should adopt for getting the best out of social media
Control risk
-Introduce good policies and processes
– Develop community guidelines for social media
– Use a good online monitoring tool
– Respond to both positive and negative comments
Experiment
– Set high-level objectives
– Pilot groups
– begin low profile, low risk, agreed opportunities
– Strive to create your brand
Evangelize
Once you finalize your strategy and are clear about your expectations from social media, talk to your colleagues and take them into confidence. Do not force it on them by making it compulsory. Tell them about its benefits to the organization. You can organize a workshop to educate others about what you intend to achieve, and what guidelines you are putting together for desired results. Discuss with them how social media will work for them. Maybe, you will get more people on board who will help you achieve your objectives for more information to click here double shoulder single point sling.
However, I have an important message for companies who just started their journey of managing social media, there are no shortcuts. You need a lot of patience before it will give you desired results. It is a learning curve, and you will keep committing mistakes. But one thing I can guarantee you, this is the best way to learn. Moreover, professional services companies should know that social media brings you an entirely different set of customers. Hence, they should know how to market their products to these people. The Sooner they learn this will be better for them and will keep them many steps ahead of their competitors.
The most important thing is that professional companies need not be afraid of this medium. In fact, this is what they have been doing for a long time. The only difference is that for a change they will be doing it online. So, once your strategy is in place, go ahead and implement that. And soon you will realize that all your apprehension about this incredible media was uncalled for.
