Online Business Owners and Social Media: Listening is Branding

Whenever we hear branding, what come into mind are its comprising entities—aesthetics, logo design, typefaces, and color contrast. However, in social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter (knowing that we cannot alter their layout and aesthetics), branding yourself as a business should not only be confined within these descriptions.

To start a social media account literally means we have to start from nothing. And without having the means and right to alter a social media layout, the only thing you can do to start a network is to listen.

Online business owners are not only Internet lurkers. They go out, they study their niche, and they listen. For example, selling second hand books does not mean you just have to Google every book in your product list. Although it is good, you still have to delve deeper into your market and into your niche. Listening starts with knowing your products, joining forums that will help you cultivate your knowledge about it, and personally talking to people that has vast knowledge of your niche.

Social Media Listening, Making a Positive Noise through it

Your network (or followers) is not only display figures to make your social media site busy and active. There is no point on having a hundred thousand followers without interacting with them. If you don’t, you will end up cut off from their accounts.

· Consider your follower’s tweet and updates as research work

Consider every tweet and update, whether it is banter or a serious rant over your products, as research work to understand your market in a deeper sense. Knowing their unadulterated thoughts is the best way to know them beyond marketing books and clichés.

· Comment threading is an expanded give-away study

Seeing how your followers connect and communicate with each other is like having a free thesis book of their behavior. Through this, you will see the language they are using, and how they think as active entities of your business. As a business owner, you need to understand your target market’s behavior, for it will give you hints on how to properly brand yourself and how to think of future designs and innovations for your products and services.

Frankly, we online business owners have frank goals, too

To say that we listen and interact with our future clients because we want to change the world (as Donald Trump brags) is truly one melodramatic reason to do business. Though there is chance that making it as a tagline on our websites may attract more customers. However, we online business owners have frank goals, as well. The truth is we listen because we have a product to sell and a message to deliver.