Press Business

If you want to make the most of social media marketing today, you better sign up with Facebook. According to a recent report from the Orlando Business Journal, Facebook has far outpaced its competitors in the first quarter of 2009, garnering 78 percent of US social network participants against MySpace’s 42 percent, LinkedIn’s 17 percent and Twitter’s 10 percent.

Worldwide, Facebook was reported to have 307.1 million unique visitors in May 2009 while MySpace had less than half with a mere 123.2 million unique visitors. According to Facebook, its members are sending each other one billion chat messages each day.

As early as 2008, a study done by Internet Retailer and Vovici showed that most online retailers in the US chose to use Facebook as a social media network to help boost sales. A separate study done by Rosetta among the top 100 US online retailers showed that 59% had set up a Facebook fan page. Among these retailers were Best Buy, Kohl’s, Wal-Mart and Toys “R” Us.

In order to make the most of your company’s Facebook fan page, though, you should familiarize yourself thoroughly with social media marketing as a whole, and with the way Facebook itself works in particular. It would be wholly counterproductive to make an online faux pas and earn ill will. Each social media network has its own temperament, after all, and its own set of rules and online etiquette. Members and users also have certain expectations from other members and users.

Perhaps it would be best for a company not to risk experimentation by assigning this task to a newbie. Learn from the mistake of the New York Times whose new social media editor had no extensive knowledge of Twitter before diving in. As a result, her repost meant to point other Tweeter users to an online article ended up taking them to Ebay instead. Do not make the same mistake in Facebook or you will get a lot of negative comments instead of the favorable ones you need. It would be best to leave the task of handling your company’s social media marketing efforts to the experts.

Social media marketing is one of the services offered by Web Dot Com Website Development Philippines, Inc. as a full service web site developer and a web hosting provider with domain name registration services. Web Dot Com recognizes that social media marketing, along with search engine optimization and search engine marketing, is now a necessity in the online marketplace. Having a good website with good landing pages are no longer enough.

As an expert in online applications and solutions, as well as business process outsourcing (BPO) services, Web Dot Com has been trusted by clients from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Germany, the United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong, Korea, the British Virgin Islands and the Philippines for the past ten years. Indeed, many companies have proven that outsourcing web development and other business processes is profitable.

From its base in Manila, the Web Dot Com employs expert programmers and developers highly skilled in php, mysql, JavaScript and other tools and languages in order to provide low cost advanced web site development packages including advanced interactive database driven web site development, advanced portal development, heavy web based programming, web application development, content management systems, website design, graphic design and multimedia components including flash animation development, e-commerce site solutions including a shopping cart using osCommerce, website maintenance and support, and internet marketing.

Web Dot Com Website Development Philippines, Inc. is your One Stop Shop Internet and Contact Center Solutions Vendor for the Global Market. Make it your social media marketing partner, as well.

Web Dot Com Website Development Philippines, Inc.

Address:

2nd Floor, BT&T Center

#20 E. Rodriguez Jr. Ave., Libis (C-5),

Quezon City, 1110 Philippines

E-mail: info@webdc.com.ph

Telephone numbers: (632) 634-4625; (632) 635-6104

If you want to make the most of social media marketing today, you better sign up with Facebook. According to a recent report from the Orlando Business Journal, Facebook has far outpaced its competitors in the first quarter of 2009, garnering 78 percent of US social network participants against MySpace’s 42 percent, LinkedIn’s 17 percent and Twitter’s 10 percent.

Worldwide, Facebook was reported to have 307.1 million unique visitors in May 2009 while MySpace had less than half with a mere 123.2 million unique visitors. According to Facebook, its members are sending each other one billion chat messages each day.

As early as 2008, a study done by Internet Retailer and Vovici showed that most online retailers in the US chose to use Facebook as a social media network to help boost sales. A separate study done by Rosetta among the top 100 US online retailers showed that 59% had set up a Facebook fan page. Among these retailers were Best Buy, Kohl’s, Wal-Mart and Toys “R” Us.

In order to make the most of your company’s Facebook fan page, though, you should familiarize yourself thoroughly with social media marketing as a whole, and with the way Facebook itself works in particular. It would be wholly counterproductive to make an online faux pas and earn ill will. Each social media network has its own temperament, after all, and its own set of rules and online etiquette. Members and users also have certain expectations from other members and users.

Perhaps it would be best for a company not to risk experimentation by assigning this task to a newbie. Learn from the mistake of the New York Times whose new social media editor had no extensive knowledge of Twitter before diving in. As a result, her repost meant to point other Tweeter users to an online article ended up taking them to Ebay instead. Do not make the same mistake in Facebook or you will get a lot of negative comments instead of the favorable ones you need. It would be best to leave the task of handling your company’s social media marketing efforts to the experts.

Social media marketing is one of the services offered by Web Dot Com Website Development Philippines, Inc. as a full service web site developer and a web hosting provider with domain name registration services. Web Dot Com recognizes that social media marketing, along with search engine optimization and search engine marketing, is now a necessity in the online marketplace. Having a good website with good landing pages are no longer enough.

As an expert in online applications and solutions, as well as business process outsourcing (BPO) services, Web Dot Com has been trusted by clients from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Germany, the United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong, Korea, the British Virgin Islands and the Philippines for the past ten years. Indeed, many companies have proven that outsourcing web development and other business processes is profitable.

From its base in Manila, the Web Dot Com employs expert programmers and developers highly skilled in php, mysql, JavaScript and other tools and languages in order to provide low cost advanced web site development packages including advanced interactive database driven web site development, advanced portal development, heavy web based programming, web application development, content management systems, website design, graphic design and multimedia components including flash animation development, e-commerce site solutions including a shopping cart using osCommerce, website maintenance and support, and internet marketing.

Web Dot Com Website Development Philippines, Inc. is your One Stop Shop Internet and Contact Center Solutions Vendor for the Global Market. Make it your social media marketing partner, as well.

Web Dot Com Website Development Philippines, Inc.

Address:

2nd Floor, BT&T Center

#20 E. Rodriguez Jr. Ave., Libis (C-5),

Quezon City, 1110 Philippines

E-mail: info@webdc.com.ph

Telephone numbers: (632) 634-4625; (632) 635-6104

The lifeblood of your business is the money you get from your customers.  Without it, obviously, you will go out of business.  Customers can be fickle, but they can also be die-hard loyalists to your product.  Part of their loyalty can be gained by what you sell, but the bulk is how they are treated in good times and bad.  Think about your business processes and policies when it comes to customer service.  Is there any place which might be a potential point of frustration?  More importantly, if this wasn’t your business, would you be happy to be treated just like your customers?

 

Bureaucracy is a major potential pitfall in dealing with customers.  Perhaps your company is so big that it can’t really give the personal touch, or maybe your employee base cannot be relied on to make the best decisions.  In either case, strict guidelines and policies must be in place to ensure the business runs properly.  Unfortunately, this leaves you wide open for customer relations issues

 

For example, take a look at a once loyal patron of Sears, who ran into a web of red tape, not because of a product return or complaint, but because he wanted to make a purchase.  Basically, due to problems ordering online, he was unable to purchase a $1,500 tractor.  After a multitude of calls with employees, customer service, and supervisors he went to Lowes.

 

Sears online store could not properly make a credit card transaction, or possibly the problem was a breakdown in communications between the store and shipping.  Regardless, not a single employee felt any urge to make the sale happen.  As it looks, Sears as a company needs every sale they can get, but this customer’s money – and all his future business – is gone forever.

 

Another trouble spot is between your customers, your employees, and money.  Refunds happen all the time and should be treated as the commonplace event that they are.  Sam Walton, the founder of Wal-Mart, told his employees to accept any returns, even if they were not purchased at Wal-Mart.  The reason he gave was if they gave them money and good customer service, the customers will take their refund and spend it in the store… then come back again and again.

 

Of course Wal-Mart has a much diversified product list and this attitude cannot be replicated at just any business, but the concept is worth its weight in gold.  Most customer problems that arise after the sale have a receipt as ground zero.  Your receipt is a binding contract with the consumer that says you sold them something for which they paid you in return.  As a result of this contract, you have to honor that little slip of paper.  Sometimes the receipt isn’t even there, but the ghost of the contract still hovers over your employee and your customer.  It’s your livelihood at stake if you do anything less than go the extra mile to resolve the issue.

 

Take for example a customer dealing with Zales.  He bought some wedding rings on a payment plan and due to the lack of credit card equipment in the store, he had to pay cash each month in person.  Now this already shows a lack in consideration to the modern consumer, but it is not that bad by itself.  The problem arose after the customer had made a $160 payment, gotten his receipt, and left.  Within a few days, the store manager called to say their video equipment had recorded the employee putting too few bills in the register.  Despite the proof of the receipt for full payment, the manager wanted the customer to pay $100 dollars to make up the shortage.

 

Many things are passed onto the consumer such as state and federal taxes, shipping costs, and price fluctuations.  One thing that should NEVER be passed on is employee incompetence, bad attitude, or mistakes.  If it is not the customers fault, don’t try to make it so.  Any small monetary gain you may get in the short term will lose you so much more when your customer takes his money elsewhere.

 

Customer service is a balance of diplomacy, flexibility, and acting.  No matter how unjust the situation seems, you must look ahead and weigh the short term gain with the relationship you will build by making your customer happy.  Never forget that an angry customer is easy to spot, but it is the quiet, abused customer that will simply smile at bad customer service and never give you their money again.