What if my business sucks at social media?

A lot of businesses are caught up in the frenzy of social media.  They are desperately trying to stay on top of the myriad of  platforms - scrambling to create a very visible online presence.  I often hear small business owners saying that they are feeling overwhelmed by it all.  Another frequent response is that they have created the websites, the facebook pages and twitter accounts, but that they fail to attract customers.

My advice is to relax.  Social media is very important and will only continue to grow in importance, but you have to put it into perspective:  social media is just a tool to reach your target audience.  It certainly is not the end of the road if you need more time to master this tool.  You have an arsenal of other tools you should utilize in the mean time.

Just to refresh your memory, I am writing a short series of blog updates on the more traditional tools. 

Promotional Mix

The promotional mix consists of 7 aspects namely personal selling, advertising, sales promotion, direct marketing, public relations, corporate image and exhibitions.  Each of these aspects allows the business to connect with its target audience, to communicate key attributes and to build long term relationships.

The most fundamental need of a business is to create sufficient sales. You need to inform customers about the attributes of your product and motivate them to purchase it.  Sales promotions offer a direct inducement to customers, salespeople and resellers to purchase a product.  It is extremely flexible and functions at both the consumer and trade levels, thereby creating high levels of distribution and goodwill.

However, there are also some disadvantages to sales promotions.  When implemented incorrectly it can damage the brand equity.  Care should also be taken to coordinate various messages across all the formats utilized.  When used too frequently it becomes the consumer expectation rather than a temporary sales boost.

Tomorrow's update will discuss specific techniques to inform customers about your product and how to motivate them to buy it.