Social Media
Social media is either a "flash in a pan of hype", the next best thing since the Internet was invented or somewhere in between depending on who you talk to. ÊWhatever your view, the prominence of social media and its effect on pr, advertising, marketing and numerous other industries is enormous. ÊFind out what works, waht doesn't, who's doing what with social media here.
Social Media: Your Online Chamber of Commerce
For decades, businesses and consumers have relied on the local chamber of commerce as a place to network for sharing ideas with other business owners, learning about new business strategies, and meeting potential customers. Regular face-to-face interactions have always been the staple of chamber of commerce meetings, and they always will be. But with today’s increasingly virtual world, face-to-face meetings aren’t the only option, and to many people they aren’t even the best option.
The Internet has opened the door to a much larger virtual network of business people, and social media networking is the way to connect with those people. Social media is in many ways like an online chamber of commerce, except that you don’t have to drive to a meeting at a specific time, you don’t have to pay annual dues, you don’t have to suffer through boring presentations, and you don’t have to come up with interesting, witty banter off the cuff to impress people and make yourself memorable. Read more
Transparency and Social Media
Transparency in business has long been a staple of good customer service, engaging customers and reassuring them about the products and services they are paying for. Now that companies are operating in a global economy, transparency is an even more valuable consideration for companies with an online presence. One of the greatest marketing values of the Internet is that it gives businesses of all sizes the ability to open their doors to customers who would otherwise not be able to get an “inside peek” at how a company operates.
Before the commercial Web began to boom in the mid-1990s, companies for the most part relied on paper and traditional media to deliver transparency to their customers-newsletters, flyers, mass mailings, newspaper and magazine articles, etc. Those efforts to establish transparency were one-sided and usually tightly controlled by the company, and customers were handed only the information the company wanted them to know. And when consumers had a problem or found themselves dissatisfied in any way, they could complain to the management, their family, and their friends-only a handful of people knew about the problem.
In today’s global marketplace, Read more
