social networking between businesses and customers

On page 213 Liana Evans speaks about social networking, a topic that’s been covered pretty thoroughly in Online Marketing Heroes and definitely more than once before by myself in these blogs. There’s nothing really new brought to the table in Evans’ interview, and my choice of question to focus on may not have been the best, but I find the whole area of social networking and social media quite intriguing, so I still find an interest in looking at different thoughts on the topic. Evans speaks about the potential of social media for businesses, and focuses on the great advantage of having the ability to communicate with ones’ customers. Conversation about ones’ product with the actual end users can help in shaping the product according to the users’ wants and needs, letting a company more effectively satisfy their target consumers. And customers will find satisfaction not only in getting a product they actually want, but also simply because they are actually being heard. They feel that they can make a difference, and they feel that the company cares about their opinion, which I think will greatly increase the probability that the customer will return to the website for further purchases. Just by opening a line of communication like this can be a far more effective marketing strategy than any traditional advertising approach. And the whole web 2.0 trend with social networking and social media gives a company the ability to have deep conversations with individual customers or potential customers.