Can you run a business purely on Social Media?
The way the world of communication is going, ie all online and increasingly mobile, it is foreseeable that you can rely totally on social media to build and maintain a profitable business. With the likes of Facebook, Pinterest and soon to be Twitter, you can easily purchase goods and services from social media so there is now no boundaries to overcome in order to sell. So does this tell us that we will all soon be without the need of telephone numbers, email addresses and even websites?
I can not see the likes of email, telephone numbers, websites, face to face business networking dying out anytime soon, but I can certainly see the importance of social media increasing and progressing it’s adaptation to our lifestyles. I can see how someone can solely use social media in order to run their business which may or may not require face to face interaction. I know a few people who do not have a website (all though would have emails and telephone numbers) and rely on social media to build their audience and business enquiries the same way as many people can rely on their websites to make them their daily bread. Ecommerce such as household items to eBooks are sold across the internet and social media used correctly can aid with sales and at times be all that is needed to drive brand awareness and new customers your way.
I spend a lot of time on social media, mostly studying conversations and popular links/images/videos among the target followers I have for the varied brands I work with. Simply by understanding your audience and customers likes and dislikes as well as their current needs, you can easily engage with them enough for them to purchase your products and services.
I am not saying that as an estate agent you will be able to place a house for sale on Pinterest or Facebook and somebody will come along with a ‘Buy It Now’ surprise for you, but just like Ebay, Facebook, Amazon and other buying and selling platforms, you will very soon be able to do a lot more with having your property on social media as each of these platforms evolve. I do believe that the likes of Rightmove and others will see competition from social media and for agents with property portfolios, they’ll have more places to actively market their property.
Can you imagine having a Twitter account that half the population of your local community actively follow? You’ll have a shop window more powerful than the high street shop window you have now, stronger viewing figures no doubt compared to your local newspaper and a far better reach than being on first page on Google. If more and more of the local community are embracing social media and spending more of their leisure time on it, then surely it will be important to have full listing details on these channels to engage these potential customers – Provide them with all the information they need directly on the social media channels they use, ie view a property listing, watch the video and click the request a viewing button.
There is no need to panic as for the time being if you have a quality brand, great website, good SEO and well presented properties on Rightmove and Zoopla you will do well in business, but I suggest that you do keep an eye on social media and the latest news on how it is progressing in popularity. Just as many internet experts would advise you to make sure your website is mobile friendly because of the increasing number of people using the internet on the mobiles, I would advise you to make sure you’ve a strong finger in the growing social media pie just incase…
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