Companies are slowly getting used to the idea that social media in business is important. A recent poll by Robert Half Technology shows that the use of social media in business has increased by 22 per cent since 2009. More than four in ten (44 per cent) of chief information officers said they permit employees to use social media on the job as long as it’s for business purposes.
The benefits of using social media in business
According to this blog post, the use of social media is growing three times faster than the Internet overall. Thus, organizations no longer own the conversation about their products or services. The use of social media in business is becoming necessary as customers are now on the social web having conversations about companies, products, services and brands. If companies want to meet their markets, they should use social media.
Social media helps businesses:
- Acquire new ideas.
- Understand what their customers want.
- Identify sales leads.
- Listen to and engage with customers and potential customers.
- Identify trending topics and stay on top of what is occurring in their industry.
- Market their brand.
Use social media in business with OneDesk
At OneDesk, we recognize that it’s important to reach customers “where they live.” One of our newest features is a social media monitoring tool built right into the application. With this, companies can search the social web and find out what customers are saying about their products, services, competitors and industry. They can join the conversation by replying to social media posts directly from OneDesk. More importantly, they can discover sales leads, ideas and feedback and bring them into OneDesk with just one click. From there, they can work at implementing the feedback.
We want to know: Do you use social media in business? Why, or why not?