We love an oxymoron, and one of the biggest ones out there is the fact that the only constant in business is change. Change happens every single day in business, from the evolving forms of technology to the updates in marketing that make businesses far better than they’ve ever been before. Technology is the biggest thing that has changed in business when you think about how much they’ve changed compared to a decade ago. Businesses that are emerging right now have it easier in some ways than businesses have done before, but technology has its place and it’s because of the digital revolution that we now find it hard to remember a time without it.
As with every function in life, things have to change for them to improve. We no longer use a rotary phone in favour of the smartphone. We rarely use snail mail when a dated and encrypted email is often much safer and faster. Technology has obviously changed the way that family and friends choose to interact with each other; so many people choose to send a quick text or WhatsApp in favour of a phone call. The question then remains about how businesses interact with their customers.
The way that businesses and their customers now communicate is massively different these days. With a large number of businesses basing themselves online, customers communicate with people over online contact forms and chat logs. When something is dissatisfying, social media contact is the first port of call. It is, therefore, the most important thing for your business to have a working website and social media presence. A company being more digitally inclined also means that you have to be vigilant about cybercrime and ensuring that your business is as secure as it can be. You can visit bswllc.com to find out more about how you can schedule an IT risk analysis. Once you’re aware of any gaps in your data security, you can be more vigilant about staying safe. It’s hard to imagine what business life was like before social media influences and fast internet speeds, but it is changing business practices in so many ways; ways that a lot of entrepreneurs don’t realise.
Business professionals use social media to network, to speak to customers and to get in contact with members of the team that work remotely. The one downside of social media in the business world is that it’s no longer the case that newbies in the industry are equal. Those who don’t get involved with social media and building a strong website are likely to fall behind competitors. It doesn’t matter whether you’ve had a successful brick and mortar business for years, if you aren’t online you’re not going to be considered as relevant among your peers. It can also create a huge distraction in the office, when the use of personal social media accounts is used by employees. However, if your staff are using social media for business purposes, then it’s worth investing your time in.
The original social media sites were always designed to connect people. It’s possible now that the growth of social media into the business world has shocked those who started out hoping to find old school friends. Jobs have been created off the back of social media in businesses, with marketing evolving into the digital space and requiring developers, UX designers, social media managers and digital marketing specialists. Brands can now put out their message in a bigger way than was previously possible, allowing a unique connection with customers. Believe it or not, social media sites only started fifteen years ago. In fifteen years, there has been a huge impact left on companies globally and social media is now something that is considered to be a business essential.
Social media has shifted the way that businesses work in pretty much every department. Sales teams are now being contacted via social media platforms and resolving issues that way. IT teams are handling website queries and errors via reports done periodically with security programmes. Marketing departments are gearing much of their campaigning around social media, knowing that customers are going to see them shine that way. The world of business has evolved over and over again in fifty years, and in a further fifty years, we may well be completely evolved in ways that we never thought possible. The fact that something like social media has influenced the way that companies are being run goes to show that while it’s not something that everyone always enjoys, change is a necessary pathway to the future.
Every business out there uses social media in some way, shape or form in their day to day business activities. It makes perfect sense, then, that if you want to generate massive returns, you should be doing everything that you can to make social media a business priority for you. The social media industry impacts businesses in a myriad of ways, and if you want to understand a few of the effects, check out our facts below.
Advertising To The Masses Is Possible
One of the biggest ways that companies are evolving with social media is the fact that targeted ad campaigns and marketing campaigns are now a bigger possibility than ever. Facebook analytics, for example, can target the right group of people by age, location, gender and even food preferences. When companies are paying that little more for insights and analytics, they can ensure that they are targeting the masses correctly for the exact product that they want to market. There has never been a time in history that a company could sit down and list the exact specifications of the customer that they want to advertise to, and then put their product right under their nose. However, this is the time that we live in right now, and it’s enthralling! Making content clickable and engaging is the slog of social media marketing teams, with huge budgets being laid down on advertising for targeted groups. There’s always been advertising for the ‘maybe’ group of people, with television and radio ads going out in the hope that businesses might reach the right people, but now we know where the advertising is going. We can also analyse the click rate of those who find said adverts and you can learn about that here.
Organic Marketing = Better Brand Transparency.
There is no group of people on the planet that enjoy having banners and pop ups shoved under their nose, slowing down their internet connection and generally making them feel harassed by the constant adverts. The good news is that social media has made organic marketing a reality. Companies can now touch base with their clients and potential customers at a better level and content can be promoted cleverly online without the feeling like you’re forcing your target markets to open and read. Social media platform Twitter is one of the most popularly used sites for businesses in the travel and transportation industry, with live and real time updates about delays, cancelled services and the ability for companies to admit when things go wrong. Despite the general consensus that people will be unhappy, they do still respect the fact that a business admitting when it’s wrong is a good thing, and they will feel more inclined to use that brand in the future. It’s all about transparency, and social media has created that possibility where before it was not there.
Healthy Fear
The one thing that can kill a company is an unhappy customer base. Unhappy customers will tell their friends, their colleagues and broadcast on social media when they are unhappy. This is a killer for companies that rely on word of mouth recommendations to thrive. Social media has allowed companies to be more transparent about their brand, sure, but it’s also meant that they live in a perpetual – and healthy – fear that when they put a foot wrong, their customers will be quick to shame them online. This can slowly but surely stop a company from trading with the same effectiveness. A company that uses social media properly will know that being open on the page and publicly apologising for a mistake will stand them in far better stead than trying to cover it up and deny that anything is wrong. Some companies have a fear of social media backlash that is extreme that they step back from social media altogether.
If your business is taking time to move from being offline to an online presence, you’ll be tentatively taking baby steps into a change. Make sure that social media is in your business plan, though. The one thing that your business will thrive on is the fact that customers will be able to find you. There’s nothing more satisfying than embracing change in the business world and having it pay off, and if social media is not yet part of your plan, make it happen. Your business will change for the better when you do better!
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