Business has come a long way since the birth of the internet. For one reason, overhead has practically disappeared for many business owners due to the ability to operate online. Another is the ability to connect with your customers directly through social media.

So what it social media exactly?

Community. Conversation. Connection.

While social media is commonly thought of as a new movement, the seeds from which social media would grow, including forums or message boards, were planted during the primitive days of the internet. Message boards became popular because of the ability to publish your comments instantly and discuss subjects with other users around the world. Because of this popularity, more tools allowing instant publication became available to users, including blog publishing systems, such as Blogger and WordPress, social networking sites, such as MySpace and Facebook, and social bookmarking sites, such as Del.ic.ious, Digg, and Technorait.

Before you take advantage of the social media world online, there are a few things you should know as a business owner.

1. Social media works best when you’re real – Trying to hide behind your company name in the social media world simply doesn’t work. While it’s great to uphold a professional demeanor at all times, it’s also important to remember the two most important rules of customer service: Be friendly. Be helpful. Figure out your company voice, presentation, and level of connection you want to enable. This is called being transparent.

2. Let your customers come to you – Avoid the temptation to seek out any and every “friend” you can get on the social networking websites in order to increase your friend list. This is one of the most abused aspects of social media, and it’s one of the reasons why users look down upon businesses in the social media scene. Instead of spending hours, days, and weeks building your friend list, consider focusing on building great informational content to attract people naturally – the people that seek you out and request to be friends with you are far more likely to convert into customers than those you found at random.

3. Don’t Spam People – It’s easier to become a spammer than you might think. Be careful not to post self-serving information anywhere but your own website. Posting information about an awesome deal over the weekend on someone’s blog, comments wall, forum, or any other public area can seriously damage your business’ reputation – and your account might even be deleted if you abuse the ability to publish information across the web. Spam is the number one enemy of social media. Be careful when sending mass emails and message blasts – this is where many people spam each other. This is why it’s better to let customers come to you, because by coming to you, they’re most likely interested in what you have to say – whereas a random collection of different people will probably find your messages irrelevant, abusive, and eventually annoying.

With those three things in mind, let’s look at how you can take advantage of social media as a business owner.

Join a Social Network

With so many social networks to choose from these days, it’s easy to become overwhelmed. Start out by joining the Dapeem network very own network of business people.

When you feel comfortable with the social networking scene, join a larger network of people, such as Facebook or MySpace, in order to tap into a larger base of potential customers – just remember to let customers come to you.

Customize your profile, explore what the network offers, and get active with the community. While it’s not a good idea to spam people and request anyone and everyone to be friends, it is a good idea to comment on other profiles, chat with other business owners, and contribute your expertise humbly where possible. For example, if someone needs help with their clogged sink, give them a bit of free advice. Chances are, they’ll remember you as a valuable source and recommend you to their friends, connect with you for the future, or call you directly for more work.

Connection

This is what social media is all about for business owners. Whether you’re connecting with customers one-on-one, business affiliates, or other parties, the connection is what you’re looking for because connections are what turn to conversions. The more conversions you have, the better your return on investment (ROI).

The nice thing about the larger social networks is that customers can interact with business owners directly, thereby allowing business to take place in a familiar place to the customer.

Again, the key is not to have more friends than any other business – this isn’t a high school popularity challenge, – but rather a network of people who are genuinely interested in what you have to offer. Again – you need to let the customers come to you.

Start a Blog

While this is the first step, it’s also one of the most demanding. Starting a blog requires the devotion of time and energy – two things you could probably use more of. To give you an idea of how demanding a blog could be, consider the professional bloggers out there – they write at least one post a day! While they’re primarily professional writers, it wouldn’t hurt to aim to be as prolific. The more you write, the better your chance someone will find your article and business. This all said, there are certainly those who blog once a week who find success through their blog. Unlike the early days of the internet, it’s no longer about building a few pages and sitting back as your website works magic. Users want fresh information, updates, and news constantly. The closer you can get to meet their demands, the more traffic you’ll see head toward your blog or website.

There are a few blog publishing systems available:

WordPress | Blogger | TypePad | MySpace

Instead of recommending one of the other, we recommend all of them – blogging has simply become too much of a powerful tool for the business owner to ignore, so jump on the bandwagon and start blogging already! If you’re interested in learning more about blogging first, read The ABCs of Starting a Blog for Your Business.

Comment on Blogs

In addition to starting a blog for your business, you need to be equally devoted to reading and commenting on other blogs in your niche. By leaving comments on blogs that your target customers are reading, you’ll be able to establish yourself as an authority in their eyes, which is important when first starting out … no one knows who you are at that point!

Read articles in your niche and leave fruitful comments – in other words, add to the discussion. Try moving the discussion in a new direction with your point of view, disagree with the writer and pose your argument, add additional points the writer may have forgot, if you wrote a relevant article you think the readers would enjoy, post a link – however, be careful not to abuse this ability.

When you leave a comment leave your blog or website address. People like to see who’s reading their blog, so by leaving fruitful comments you’ll expose your blog or website to new readers.

Be Exclusive

Again, with so many networks to join, bookmarks to mark, and friends to befriend, you need to find a way to simplify what’s become an overwhelming arena. Instead of offering the same rates, promises, and advice across the social media board, consider offering exclusive rates for Facebook friends, exclusive articles to those who follow you on Twitter, exclusive tools for those who subscribe to your blog on MySpace, and so on.

This technique encourages more involvement from your true customers, cuts down the time you have to spend posting all the same stuff on all your networking sites, and reduced any duplication, which is never good for users and potential customers. Keep it exciting, fresh, and exclusive to where your customer is at any moment.

Social media might be relatively new, but customer service isn’t. Consider taking note of what you think a great customer service provider does and hone your own. Remember, social media is about community, conversation, and connection — don’t shy away from revealing yourself online. Get involved with the conversations about your trade, share your theories, tips, and advice. Connect with others and allow others to connect with you. Build a community that’s interested in hearing from you.

Jumpstart your venture into social media by following @Dapeem on Twitter.

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