Digital Presence

Sidewalk poster howls at you when you walk past, saying that such and such business exists. It does not talk about the brand, not the product quality not the people who are in business. It merely states the fact that they are also in business two blocks away. The same applies to your company’s presence in social media, i.e. an account in Facebook or Twitter or LinkedIn.

Yes, presence in digital platform is essential today announcing your existence in the market place, creating a sort of brand awareness. But more than having a presence, one needs to engage with the audience in the social media to create interest in your company, your product or services. But real sale does not happen there even though your have ‘followers’, ‘groups’ and ‘likes’.

While the sidewalk poster is good to have, more important is how your shop is organized, how your front-desk executive greets the visiting customers, how your product or service catalogues are stacked up for easy viewing and how enthusiastic is your sales person to take the customer around the aisles to assist. This is the behavior of the shop that may prompt a sale. Same as your website. Treat the website as your little shop with all that characteristic and behavior which may prompt a sale. Let us remember, customers do not come back again if they do not experience what they want to experience. Behavior is fuzzy, non-linear, dynamic, adaptive, experiential and your website needs to showcase the same.

Most important is to understand that sidewalk poster does not direct the customers, the real ones , may be the passer-by ones. Real customers look for a shop where they can find the goods or service that they need to buy. They may ask their friends or someone at the sidewalk about the shop where they can find it. They may check the price with their friends who might have bought the same goods. The same is with the search engine. And you ought to depend on the search engine for your shop to be found out by the customers with the need. Search engines add value in helping to get the leads and prospects for you. And there the real sales happen.

More so, if the customers can check with their connects in the community of their social graph about the company or product or services or price, then instant validation happens with the  probability of sale going up. There comes the role of social media complementing the search engine.

For small & medium business these digital platforms i.e. company website, social media and search engine are great cost effective tools to increase brand awareness, improve marketing, increase sales revenue and also attract talents. One needs to  dedicate conscious effort to manage these platforms and visiting traffic most effectively, not in isolation but in an inclusive and congruous manner.