Most every business uses the tools of social media to promote their business and connect with their customers. Here are some tips to ensure that you have proper etiquette in social media and avoid any mis-steps.

Start with the Three Simple RULES of Social Media:
When using social media, be sure to promote your message “respectfully.” It’s important to investigate the community tone, rules, and protocols before you jump in since each form of social media has definite ways to participate and ways to get in trouble.

Here are three simple guidelines when using social media to market to your customers:
Rule #1: Don’t endlessly and bluntly hawk your products and services.
Rule #2: Be generous. Give free information, solutions, upfront value.
Rule #3: Don’t steal great ideas and pass them on as yours. It’s great to ReTweet (RT), but always give attribution as the community of social media is self-policing and its members will call you out.

No one channel is the only dominant or final word for all of your clients’ interests. Think of social media like the sandwich boards businesses put out on high traffic roads to direct people to their business.Every real-estate broker knows the value of a compelling sign strategically located. As a business leader, investigate your ideal customers’ social media community preferences and patterns, and place
your value-based message there.
An example of how one company used social media to reach its customers is Dell computer’s use of Twitter. Dell realized Twitter’s power as a cheap and powerful tool for providing value and making a profit. When Dell had a huge surplus of refurbished computer “stuff,” it put it out on Twitter as a customer service FYI and the word spread virally. Profits soared and customer satisfaction went with it.

By using social media properly, you can build a stronger connection with your professional community that benefits both your company and your customers.

How Do You Sell to Baby Boomers?

The Baby Boomers, 80 million strong, created a cultural wave in purchasing never experienced before. From the time Boomers entered adolescence to now as they begin to enter “retirement age” the sheer numbers of people in this generation has dramatically impacted the market.

Boomers’ purchasing power is at an all time high. Millions of business people and organizations already directly target their marketing, messaging, and solutions toward serving and selling to the Boomers, a generation of wealthy, I want it now, liberal spenders.

However, don’t forget it is a “seller beware” market. Boomers are demanding customers who expect great things for their money. Contrary to popular belief they are not brand loyal like their Traditionalist parents. A 2001 Roper/ASW study reports that buyers age 45+ are no more brand loyal than younger people in most categories.

The good news, Boomers can be influenced by advertising and marketing messages. They are constantly looking for new products and services that meet the demands and life opportunities and obstacles they are facing.

What Boomers are dealing with:

• Boomers are time-stressed.
• They are dealing with aging parents who need their care.
• They have Boomerang Millennial children who keep coming back again and again.
• They need products and services that will save them time.

Boomers are at the peak of their careers and earning potential. Time is money to a Boomer and they are willing to pay handsomely to get back the balance in their life.

But be aware that Boomers have a healthy skepticism of authority from their activism, flower-power years. So be ready to present your convenient, easy, trusty time-saving solutions in a highly ethical and straightforward manner.

These civil rights, human rights babies are value-driven and optimistic by nature. But they will do the research and you will need to match up what you promise with what you deliver.