In today’s new normal, we are in a volatile and challenging business environment where customers are demanding more for less – and NOW!
Thus, it is increasingly critical to stand out from the crowd.
One of the best ways to differentiate your company is to utilize social media to increase revenue, profitability, and customer satisfaction.
Those manufacturers and distributors who are jumping on the social media train are surpassing their competition. Here are a few of the ways they are leveraging social media:
- To promote products – social media can help to generate excitement about new products and features. As influencers note interesting developments and offer incentives on Twitter and Facebook, the market follows.
- To find talent – nothing could be more important in today’s environment as high-skilled talent is hard to find yet vital to managing complex supply chain networks. LinkedIn is a great way to source top talent!
- To source supply – although the tried and true ways to sourcing suppliers still remain valid, social media can provide interesting new alternatives. Social media brings the global market to our fingertips and allows us to search and focus in on specific attributes and selection criteria at any hour of any day 24/7.
- Gain expertise – there are countless experts in a wide variety of subject matter leveraging social media as a Q&A tool. For example, one of my clients wanted to find out how to leverage their ERP system to drive business results in supply chain planning and was able to find numerous experts happy to share expertise on Linked In groups and blogs.
- Training/how-to – as customers are king in today’s new normal business environment, what could be better than providing 24/7 access to training tools and how-to videos on YouTube and other sites so customers can gain just-in-time access to what they need when they need it?
Learn more about how to use social media with my new book “Leverage Social Networks to Drive Business Results.” By utilizing best practices, business leaders will gain the critical strategies to utilize social media to achieve success.
Avoid those Social Media Landmines too! Download my 8 Don’ts in Leveraging Social Networking White Paper.