Melissa Galt

But know that social doesn't have to mean personal. For business, it's all about sharing value content in a casual and consistent manner to engage and attract buyers.

This is the age of high-tech and that demands of us to be high-touch in our outreach. It is also the age of high distrust, with the environment littered by the remains of corporate greed and excess that both imploded and exploded leaving a devastating impact. Consumers are still buying now, only with much greater caution. Social media allows you a cost-effective way to build your trust, promote your credibility, and reach a larger audience all at the push of a button. The question you must answer is how you can strategically harness the ever-growing suite of online tools for your business's marketing success.

To create a comprehensive success strategy requires a Web site that you can drive your audience to and invite them to buy. You can get them to your site by social media and blogs, as well as more traditional means of marketing. A blog can act as a company forum to share current value content, product news and stories, and provide interaction by way of comments with your buyers. The blog content can then be repurposed and shared by links through the social networks. Depending on the nature of your business, you will need active, accurate and up-to-date profiles on at least two of the major social networks: Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube.

While Google is the No. 1 search engine, YouTube is No. 2 with 15 hours of video being loaded every minute and the average American watching four hours a month. While that may not sound significant, when you consider that most of it is in 3-5 minute segments, it takes on a new importance. Creating mini-stories sharing the benefits of your product, how it transformed a life or solved a problem, is what people are genuinely interested in.

Facebook is the platform allowing you to make mini-blog posts, share links, post photos, get e-mail, establish a group and interact with prospects, customers, colleagues and even competitors. Facebook has rocketed to the No. 5 search engine spot. Can you truly afford to miss out on more than 200 million users and the largest photo sharing platform globally? It has climbed well past the spot for tweens and teens to congregate. For business you can circumvent the need for a profile and directly set up what is called a Fan Page or professional profile instead. This is indexed by the search engines and is an essential part of your search engine optimization strategy.

Twitter is a status update site requiring you to communicate in 140 characters or less, the equivalent of two short sentences. It does offer link sharing and you can easily share pictures, video and much more.

LinkedIn is a forum devoted to business professionals and is less social and more businesslike, but it is still all about building relationships and reaching out and interacting with those you want to do business with. LinkedIn tops 50 million users and is the place to be specifically if you want to gain ground with the design and architecture trade. Pitching your product directly is ill-advised; instead it is expected you will share relevant content about your product and services, create interest and intrigue through stories and relating, and garner credibility and trust so that you become a preferred resource.

While strategy is critical, it is equally vital to understand the rules of the Internet before you jump in. The Internet has a very long memory. Be smart. Don't post anything you don't want your spouse, your mother, your kids or a current or future employer to see or find. In the case of business, don't post anything you don't want your customers, colleagues or competitors to access. Skip the meaningless references to what you had for dinner or your need to tell us you are walking the dog. (We really don't care!) Keep your content upbeat, interesting, entertaining, educational, valuable and engaging. Be consistent and persistent; it matters.

Are you afraid this will devour your life and distract you from real business? Sure you can lose days and hours to social networking but you don't have to. There are hundreds of applications for each media platform and many that can be used on multiple platforms. Realistically once your profiles are established, you can manage your social media presence in less than an hour a day or less than five hours a week. This will certainly vary based on the size of your company.

For those people fearful of their inbox being overrun by social media, do know that you are in total control of how you get communication from each media outlet. On every network there is a crucial settings account that allows you to customize whether or not you receive anything at all directly in your e-mail box or if instead you prefer to go to the network site itself to monitor all interaction. This choice alone makes it entirely manageable.

Setting up your profiles is time well invested. When it is done completely and correctly these will serve as valuable search engine optimizers and drive your company's reputation and recognition. You will need to determine a "voice" for your company. If it isn't you, then you need to determine who it will be or if you want to have a handful of your team take this on. You need a person to represent your company because profiles are best in first person, except LinkedIn which is generally more formal in feeling. Be sure to include some personal interests, people are truly seeking to connect and want to know that you are real, that your company is made up of individuals who care and will stand behind the products promoted. Think of each entry in your company profile as a potential point of connection. Someone may connect with you because you both enjoy gardening, or you both love to cook, or you both enjoy exotic travel. Does that mean they'll buy? It is much likelier they'll buy from someone they "know" and trust and that means sharing.

Now, you are likely a bit overwhelmed by all of this and not sure how to proceed. There are a wealth of social media consultants whom you can employ to make this all work seamlessly. The key is to find someone who understands the home furnishings industry, what your company's goals are, and how to best take your company online or extend your current online presence with the social media suite of tools.

Social media is the wave of now and tomorrow. If you don't jump aboard today, you certainly will in six months or risk extinction. You can dive in with both feet or wade in one network at a time. Whatever you choose you now have a powerful array of new marketing tools, no cost and low cost, to widen your reach and cement relationships for a lifetime of demand.

Melissa Galt can be reached at melissa@melissagalt.com.

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