Why Social Media Training Is Important For Your Business

I fundamentally believe in any business, there are 2 options when it comes to approaching things that aren’t within your skill set

* You outsource to an expert
* You get training so you add another string to your bow

There are so many small business owners in the UK awarding themselves the role of Marketing Director for their own small business when they have zero marketing experience

Think about that for a while – some of the biggest marketing decisions you make, may be based on little or no experience

You’ve spent years training or building up your experience for the service you actually offer … and yet then you are handing the important role of sales and marketing to someone (yourself) that has no experience of how to sell or how to market

Martin Glenn, the chief executive of United Biscuits and former Pepsico marketer, thinks marketing is the most important business function and can be the making or breaking of a business.

He was recently quoted “At the heart all business failures are actually marketing failures”

And that applies to a small business as much as a large corporate. How many local businesses do you know that have failed recently because of no customers, no sales and the over-riding fact that nobody knew the existed?

When it comes to marketing it really helps to engage an expert with a proven track record of success

Social Media Training is important for 2 key and very important reasons – 1st Impressions and Lasting Impressions

1ST IMPRESSIONS COUNT
Social Media is often the 1st impression people have of your business

99.9% of businesses that have opened in my home town in the past few years I’ve heard about from Social Media 1st and Traditional Media / Marketing 2nd

Every networking meeting I walk into I meet new business owners that have joined Twitter, followed us on twitter 1st and then networked 2nd

It doesn’t matter whether you are a B2C or B2B business, Social Media is the 1st and often only impression people have of your business

I’m going to touch on this more in a future blog, but you can judge a lot by the way someone uses social media

* Are they committed?
* Do they turn up every day?
* Are they exciting, creative and inspirational? Or are they beige?
* How are they different from competitors?
* Are they a giver? Or are they a taker?
* Do they show gratitude?
* Do others say great things about them?

And you thought it was just a marketing tool rather than a personality test or a look at your emotional intelligence

LASTING IMPRESSIONS COUNT
Social Media is a world where you have a daily opportunity to get it right and equally a daily opportunity to get it wrong

Gone are the days when one printed advert could survive 12 months or one TV advert could last for a year

Social Media is about those micro-moments and relationship building that takes place on a daily basis

Now imagine having zero experience of marketing or any Social Media training and having the opportunity to get it wrong every day and create a lasting impression that neither wows customers. or wins over customers

If you look at how much time international brands such as Cadbury and Coca Cola spend on the lasting impression for their big sell low ticket items, you understand how much you have to do right for somebody to invest £20 or £200 or £2000 in your business because of long term Social Media relationships

For those larger ticket items or more serious businesses (think Mortgage Advisor / Solicitor / Accountant) it is very much about the long term benefits of Social Media and therefore you have to have an understanding of the long term relationship building on Social Media rather than thinking of quick term wins

SO WHY SOCIAL MEDIA TRAINING?
Because you only have 1 chance to make the right 1st impression – and chances are Social Media will be the 1st place people hear about you or your business

And you then have every single day to make the right or wrong lasting impression

Do the right thing – have a strategy and know the intricacies of Social Media from the outset

And if you’re already using Social Media without the knowledge – make that decision on training today, you can STILL make that right 1st impression for newbies following today, tomorrow and next week!!