Submitted by Jan Smith on Sun, 01/24/2010
As I've mentioned before in an earlier blog, social media can be a fabulous tool for small business owners or it can be a complete waste of time. Whether these tools are business builders or productivity wasters depends a lot on your business and your customers. If you do have a presence in social media, what will it take to keep your followers engaged?
Research done by MarketingSherpa and published in The eMarketer Daily sheds some light on what social followers want.
The MarketingSherpa survey asked users about their reasons for friending or following companies through social media. Finding out about specials and sales was high on the list -- 64% of all users -- along with learning about new products, features or services (62%). About a third said they were interested in entertainment (reading something funny or insightful) and in finding out about the company culture or practices.
I guess this all seems obvious, but it's nice to have common sense supported by some actual research.
So what should you tweet? If you're marketing to the consumer, it seems sensible to mention deals, specials, new products and where they can meet you, sample your products, or find other people who share your interests and passions. And if you've got some words of wisdom, pass those along too.