People don’t buy from companies. They buy from people. Somewhere along the purchasing decision a person is involved: either a friend or colleague that makes a recommendation or a good salesperson or helpful customer service or even a question answered on an online forum or network. Even online people may purchase from a company once without a human interaction, but it’s probably the person-to-person contact somewhere along the line that brings them back. People make a company what it is.
Jim Connolly’s post, Social media rock stars? Get real!, reminds us of how important it is to build a community – one with relationships and conversations instead of racking up followers:
Those numbers represent people. Real people. Real people, with real lives, real needs and real dreams. Business is all about people too. If we forget that, and just go for the numbers, we place a very low ceiling on our potential.
I think that too often businesspeople get caught up in the numbers – how many followers, how many retweets, etc. that they forget that the power of social media is in the ability to have conversations with more people. There’s so much to learn from customers and potential customers about what they want and how they feel about your brand. There’s also an opportunity to help out and build long term relationships.
Something like 80% of people trust peer recommendations over company advertisements. Even if the relationships you’re building don’t lead directly to sales, they may lead to one down the line – when someone asks for a recommendation.
How are you building relationships through social media?
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Technorati tags: customer service, relationships, social media, business, marketing strategy, marketing