Social Media- Now It’s Personal

When big companies first picked up on Twitter, many got it wrong. They used the company logo as their avatar, broadcast their ads and offers, ignored the people replying to them and didn’t follow anyone who wasn’t part of the company. They acted like giant firms using Twitter as a giant billboard.

A few companies though got it right. They let their Twitterers use their real names and their real pictures. They allowed them to tweet about their personal lives and talk to other people on the site.

They encouraged them to make their Twitter space personal.

That’s the revolution that social media has brought to marketing. The sales you can make through Twitter and Facebook aren’t down to the size of your name or the length of time you get on television during the Superbowl.

They’re down to the relationship you manage to build with your community.

It’s personal. It’s about you.

And that’s something available to anyone who’s capable of maintaining a relationship with others.

Social media sites are just tools. They’re tools that allow entrepreneurs to build and deepen connections. But it’s those relationships – and whether they’re felt by your contacts – that will determine whether you’ve got a friend, a follower or a customer as well.

I know some people find that a bit scary. A lot of entrepreneurs prefer to keep things entirely professional. They like to stand behind their company not stand for it.

That can work too. Coca-Cola is still a successful company but I doubt many Coke-drinkers know who runs it. That’s the advantage of big companies though: they’re established, have big advertising budgets and they already have a long-standing relationship with customers. Buyers know what those brands mean to them.

When you’re still a small, new business, you won’t have anything but yourself. Fortunately, today, that’s a powerful asset. With social media it’s enough to let you build a community of customers that will stay with you for life because its members feel they have a personal connection with you.

That’s the right way to use social media, and if some big companies are still struggling to get it, that just leaves more room for small businesses to grow bigger.