Don't get lost in Social Media
The combination of social media and business is getting more and more popular. There’s hardly any company, which is not represented on Facebook with a fan page or has a group at Xing.
Businesses not only take up the chance to use an additional channel for their company presentation, but for freelancers and self-employed fan pages (I stick with the old term, even if one only expresses one’s sympathy for a product and does not have to call oneself a fan any more) and groups in social media are definitely of use in order to keep track of state-of-the-art developments in their industry sector or to have the latest information about job opportunities.
Which possibilities – but also dangers – such social media offer is briefly being listed below:
By generating their own pages, businesses have the opportunity to present themselves more explicitly in the Web and to correspond to the new wishes of users and customers at the time of Web 2.0 to build up a more direct connection to their customers. Lufthansa, for instance, recently used its Facebook account during the flight ban at the time of the volcanic eruption in Iceland to inform passengers about the current status of events.
Freelancers on the other hand have the chance to join certain groups and thus to keep pace with the activities in their industry sector. This way, one can stay informed in IT-specific groups about new trends on the market or – as a freelancer – gather news via one of the mediation platforms about news on the job market.
After the fast-paced growth in the past years the number of users at twitter seems to stay on a stable level by now. However, according to a blog report on Basic Thinking (German) the active use of the platform is increasing. On average, one account has 300 followers by now and the frequency of tweets has considerably increased as well.
For businesses twitter is becoming more and more interesting, too. Short status updates about new offers or changes in the company can be systematically and rapidly distributed. Through the possibility to use direct messages, customers have an additional option to get in touch with the company.
Freelancers can not only market themselves via twitter, but also watch out for potential job offers. Some mediation platforms even have their own twitter accounts for new projects.
The classic when it comes to business in the Internet. Xing is explicitly directed towards business people, it is the best address to administer professional contacts. Consequently the groups are more explicit and rather geared towards professional interests.
There are infinitely many ways by now to present oneself in the Internet and to build up business connections. Which one is the right one for one’s own business depends on the target group and one’s own demands. Facebook is mainly geared towards a young, innovative public, here one must choose another language than, for instance, at Xing, where one generally has to present oneself in a more serious manner.
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