3 Tips for Using Social Media to Your Company’s Advantage

Increasing one’s company’s reputation should be a target all entrepreneurs should work towards. Apart from using the traditional forms of reputation building such as public relations and different marketing and advertising options, social media has grown to also become a formidable tool to help promote brands and improve a company’s reputation on a scale that other traditional mediums are still struggling to attain. Therefore, knowing how to use the social media tool to a company’s advantage might be one of the defining factors towards increasing a company’s reputation. Social media is designed to enable information go viral, spreading information at the level of speed it takes for a deadly software virus to take over an operating system and cause havoc. Social media’s transmission model allows viral communication to happen through a networked, distributed flow and through disorganized/disordered yet patterned ways whereas traditional transmission model used in different marketing and advertising options uses a two-step transmission model that involves passing the message from the creator to an individual or a group. This awesome tool can pass information across at a high exponential level and can grant instant feedback about a product/service or a company. How then should social media be used to improve a company’s reputation? Be authentic. Be true Many companies forget that people who use their brands every day, or at the very least have access to their products, are on their different social media platforms. They therefore tend to create hype about the products and services they offer that may be untrue. Social media only favours authentic information as such gets larger volumes of views and shares because prospective customers and stakeholders find it useful and applicable. Any attempts to pass information that is untrue or can literally be referred to as a spam message will only backfire. Increases access for companies/consumers Social media platforms are platforms that are many times viewed and used informally by consumers. Companies that come on social media platforms are seen as those who try to bridge the gap created between corporate establishments and individuals. Whereas there are closing hours for offices, customers can reach out to a company’s social media platform with a complaint or ask questions regarding a process which might have been too late if the customer has waited until the next day. Customers can through a company’s social media platform find it easy to reach a company at any time of the day to ask questions or request for its product or services. Social media platform for customers’ pleasure and complaints With public relations and other traditional avenues available for growing a company’s reputation, feedback is most times indirect and somewhat slow. However, social media has a high level of responsiveness that most companies are sometimes not prepared for. As a social media platform, companies should allow their customers and their prospective customers make their experiences with the company, whether good or bad known, on the platform and give immediate feedback to express their pleasure and their displeasure. For no reason should any company ignore the possible impact being on a social media platform can grant. Companies should explore the different ways this tool can be used for their advantage now that the social media is handy and carried everywhere on mobile devices.