UK business trailing badly with Social Media

Why is UK business trailing so far behind the rest of the world when it comes to Social Media?

As a company in this field we have been involved in trying to grow awareness of the phenomenal capability of Social Media to generate new business, yet even though we are having a great deal of success it's still very slow going. So whats holding business back? surely it's not the cost? Social Media is virtually free when it comes to cost against results compared to other advertising mediums? once in place it takes very little effort to create a strong following either for a brand or an individual. So why the slow uptake?

Could it be because companies feel they are not internet savvy so shy away from anything that looks like it might be a bit technical. That would make very little sense as virtually all business is connected to the Internet these days and would not be able to survive without it, so why the lack of enthusiasm. Could it be that it's seen as a young persons medium, surely not? that's like saying we don't need to be in contact with young people who are our future potential customers.

Or is it the age old excuse we don't have the time? that's like saying we don't have the time to find new customers, we don't have the time to talk to our current customers. Yet when given the opportunity to spend a fortune on un-targeted advertising or mailing lists that contain 20% A's if your lucky, businesses jump at the chance.

Come on UK business, wake up and smell the roses, Social Media gives you a highly targeted audience to both promote to and talk to and does one extremely important thing as far as sales are concerned.

"SOCIAL MEDIA BREAKS DOWN BARRIERS AND CREATES TRUST"

As an ex salesman I know from experience how hard it is on the front line to win new clients, especially in this day and age where FREE, 2 for 1 and DISCOUNT are the most popular words around.

Normal sales and marketing techniques cost thousands of pounds and hundreds of man hours, sometimes to just open the door to one good client.
I am not saying we should forget about sales people, on the contrary, as long as the sales person doesn't pester a client they keep your business at the fore with your clients and create friendship and trust over time.

So, how about UK business waking up and giving their sales people a hand with breaking down the key barriers. Help them to be able to communicate with existing customers and have the opportunity to find new highly targeted accounts, Social Media does this with ease.

Why do you think big business have "Find us on Facebook or Follow us on Twitter"? because they want to be in with the in-crowd? I don't think so. They recognise that one like on Facebook can get them seen by millions of potential customers, customers that are interested in their products, a targeted audience.

A like on Facebook is as good as you saying I trust these people so its OK for you to trust them to, why not add them to your list. That's a third person recommendation and we all know just how effective recommended business is and most importantly how cost effective it is.

Having a Twitter account is like having a search engine dedicated solely to finding people who are talking about your products this very instant. No other system in the world can do that so simply, business needs to get savvy, if you don't have the time to type a few words a day then don't moan if sales plummet.

Facebook, Twitter and other social media are not the sole domain of big business, any business can give even the biggest company a run for their money with social media and it costs very little.

Social Media is here to stay and in my opinion will be the future proof link to all marketing and customer service. Some media sites will not survive if they don't keep up and others will grow to replace them. Social Media will virtually replace traditional advertising over time as it is amazing value in comparison to other forms of marketing or advertising. With one click or tweet you can reach millions of targeted customers, try doing that on your TV or in the papers.

So UK business lets get going and start to build successful marketing and customer service media. If you wait your competition will have your customers and you cant buy a targeted Social Media presence of any worth, not yet anyway.

I would just like to quote a friend of mine from the USA who said to me some years ago "You know you Brits have the greatest sales people in the world at generating new business, why? because you ain't got a clue how to look after the customers you already have, so you have to keep marketing."

Take care, Dave Gould