Five reasons why your company needs a social media presence

You know a few friends who use Facebook, and you've heard Twitter mentioned on the BBC.

You're a creative thinker, someone who has been responsible for your company becoming a market leader. And you want to know more.

However, there's a limited amount of time and money at your hands. Your e-mail inbox recieves a hundred emails a day, ranging from new meetings you have to go to at short notice to a customer's outlook on life.

What you need is someone who can give you advice on what social media tools to use and how to use them.

Like me.

In this post, I'll be explaining five reasons why your company needs to use social media.

1. New ways of marketing your company:

Forget spending thousands of pounds on outdoor advertising that might be covered with flyposters, or paying people to stand in the rain handing out flyers to people hurrying to the underground.

Everyone who signs up to your company's Facebook page will be able to recieve messages about your products or updates on your company's growth.

Everyone who follows your company's Twitter account will be able to recieve your news whenever you want to send it, seconds after you do send it.

Everyone who is able to bookmark a webpage about your company on a social bookmarking site such as Delicious will be sharing your information with hundreds of other Delicious users.

Social media is cheap, has a wider reach and more interactive than other marketing methods. This leaders on to my next reason...

2. New means to have a conversation:

Anyone who follows you using social media is able to send you direct messages either asking or giving information.

If a customer has a complaint about your product, for example, you can discuss the complaint with them using social media.

The customer will be impressed at your quick response and will be more inclined to recommend your company to others than if she had to ring up or travel to a branch to register her complaint.

She may even use the social media site to praise your fast response, providing your company with more good publicity.

Customers are also able to provide feedback and suggestions on your product, which will help your company to adapt quicker to customer desires.

3. A means to find new markets:

Who is following you on Facebook or Twitter? Where are they from? What do they do? Viewing their profiles can give you more information about your potential customers and how to reach them.

4. Damage limitation:

PR mishap? Problem with one of your products? Get your site of the story across quickly. Many journalists are expert social media users and will note your quick response to a problem, whether raised online or offline.

For example, Asda could use a Facebook page to quickly inform customers of product recalls as well as taking out adverts in newspapers.

Customers will therefore feel confident that Asda is committed to quickly informing cusomers when a product does not meet high standards, and will feel more confident about shopping at Asda.

5. Keeping up with the competition:

If you don't optimise social media to help your business, your competitiors will. And they'll be the ones taking advantage of the above points.