How to maneuver the social media to generate leads: insights for Start-ups and SMEs. 

What do commoners want? Fame, recognition, some amount of love and yes $ufficient money ($ is a variable here).

What do businesses want? Customers, sales, brand augmentation and in turn ROI…

This is my take on how these business houses can make the best out of SOCIAL MEDIA (SM) to pursue the ultimate business rationale: 

Paso Uno: Start with the Basics:

A short study of the various available SM platforms where one can pitch in for prospects. A company needs to determine unequivocally their target audience and the appropriate medium. A media firm for instance needs TWITTER as a rule of the thumb. Similarly a Retail firm will not want to take its FB page lightly!!

For SMEs (assuming bigger firms have already initiated rather implemented such measures to avoid risking being thrown out of business) it becomes really important if they want more business and also because it’s just a matter of time before SM becomes inevitable for them as well.

De dos Pasos: Recognize your customers:

Once the medium is finalized, it’s time to go viral on promoting whatever you got. This promotion should not necessarily be of the strengths but also of the weaknesses. Wondering what that means? Simply ask people to suggest you on how to get the crooked things can be straightened in your business, I mean it could be any other product which is on sale for which you ask suggestions. But the process should be continuous, the customers want recognition and when there are follow-ups to these suggestions, customers feel recognized!!

Tres Pasos: Make ‘em famous:

I was once called up by a well known company and to my surprise they told me I was chosen as a lucky winner to get a cricket ball signed by the best bowler in an ongoing series and this felicitation would be done live on national TV right after the match! The kind of impact it had on me and my family can be gauged by the fact that we still swear by that company’s products. How to replicate this on Social media? Simple, create a column somewhere in your firms FB page where you can showcase a lucky customer and keep changing it periodically. This could be just one method, one may occasionally TWEET/POST/SHARE a customer’s pic or simply mention this person to garner some loyalty points.

Utimo Paso: Pay them in cash or in kind, they won’t mind:

Now that almost all customer needs are more or less accommodated, we must address the most common psychological trait in them- GREED. It may sound as if it is straight out of the Wall Street movie, but the fact is that GREED is the cornerstone of all businesses. What a tactical SM person can do here is use it promote a company advantageously. And the method is same: Offers/Discounts/Promotional Schemes/Cash Back. Only thing new is they earn these by visiting the company pages more often!

Coming up next: How can companies with established SM presence optimize the time and effort they spend online?