[Posted by Heather K. Margolis from Channel Maven Consulting] In the past I’ve written posts for vendors about the benefits of social media. Recently I have been putting more thought into the Partner – Customer relationship and how social media should be applied here.
Resellers may feel it is a waste of time. Think again. When is the last time you made a purchase solely based upon and email you received from the vendor? Or said, “That’s exactly what I want!” when a telemarketer called you? People use search, recommendations, and conversations to help decide when and where to buy a product or service and it is important to make sure you have exposure so that you are one of the options they look at.
Search: The first thing most people do when they are looking to solve a problem is Google it. When they do they’ll find blogs, tweets, and comments on social media platforms around that topic. If you’re not engaging in social media, your information is not on any of those sites.
Recommendations: Third party recommendations speak more highly of your brand or service then your own messaging. Who are you going to believe? A vendor’s marketing department claiming they have what you’re looking for or another customer who gives an honest assessment of the product and tells you why they like/dislike it?
Conversations: Building relationships is harder than ever with the increased number of customers’ and regions you serve, as well as level of support customers have grown to require. If you can engage with a customer and build that loyalty over a 140 character message instead of face-to-face meeting you’re able to reach a larger pool of customers.
Stay tuned for my next post on how to get started with social media and which tools should come first.
Visit Dell’s social media sites by clicking these links:
Twitter 
|Facebook 
| Dell Channel Blog 
|Linked In 
You must
Login to comment.
|
|
|