When we’re at tradeshows, several of us who are on the supplier end of the industry often get together informally after show hours to discuss trends that we see in the industry or what strategies are working well to get our products exposure to those people who are currently looking to buy fitness equipment.
One of the topics that has come up increasingly is social media. Everyone understands that there seems to be some compelling reason to do it, but no one is really sure how it benefits us in terms of exposure and, at the end of the day, sales. Indeed, to look around at many of the Facebook and blog posts of those people in our business, it strikes one that there is something missing. That missing factor seems to be interaction with our market. Posts are almost entirely the company telling you what’s great about them – like you would expect in traditional marketing. But what these companies need to realize is that the social media strategy is different. It should be completely the opposite, with the medium acting as a forum to interact with our customers by listening to their comments instead.
But first you have to have a compelling reason for people to come to your site. That also seems to be a sticking point with many manufacturers and you wonder whether they even have any idea what is important to the market.
In this, our third blog post, we can’t expect to be there yet, but we hope, with your help, that you will lead us to the point where we can quickly an easily interact with you, our users. We have some useful information planned for you and you will be seeing it in the coming days. In the mean time, please let us know where we can help you.