The way we share information, interact with our friends and family and conduct business has changed drastically over the past few years. More conversations and business transactions occur through words on a screen, as opposed to face-to-face interaction or phone conversations. Words on a screen are powerful but they are also dangerous. Without hearing the voice of the person you are interacting with, words on a screen can often be misunderstood.

Miss Manners said it best when she stated, “Many people mistakenly think a new technology cancels out an old one.” Manners are important online, perhaps even more important than manners in person. Due to personal interpretation, feelings can get hurt and customers can be easily offended if the basic rules of netiquette are not followed.

Comment Carefully
As a business, your online presence should reflect your in house expectations of protocol. Simply put, if you wouldn’t conduct yourself in a certain manner with a customer in person, do not conduct yourself that way with your customer online. This can get tricky when managing social media platforms. When using Facebook and Twitter, it is extremely important to choose your words carefully. If you have a third party monitoring your social media accounts, make sure they have clear instructions on how your business interacts with customers. A business can gain more customers if potential customers witness great online customer service. Equally, a business can lose customers and quickly gain a viral bad reputation if they handle their social media interactions poorly.

Be Accurate
The Internet has made locating factual information very easy for your customers. Having an authentic voice and providing truthful information is paramount. Customers love the transparency that online interaction provides along with the connectedness they feel with the companies that provide their goods and services. By being accurate, truthful and honest a business will earn and keep the trust of their valued customers, while attracting potential customers at the same time.

Grammar Counts
When engaging with your customers online, proper use of English makes a difference. If your outbound posts, blogs, website and interactions contain a lot of grammatical errors and poor use of English, your customers will think two things. First, that your business is unintelligent. Second, your business doesn’t pay attention to detail. If your business makes sloppy mistakes online, your customers will have the impression that your business makes sloppy mistakes with their services. This is not the impression you want to give your audience. Using spell check and online grammar software can be a businesses best friend.

The trend of business interactions occurring via social media networks and email is on the rise. Business owners must embrace this new way of offering stellar customer service. Social media networks provide many opportunities for marketing that provides optimal results. An important factor to pay close attention to is minding netiquette manners. By following a few basic netiquette rules, current customers will remain loyal and potential customers will want to purchase your products and services.

Professional networking has always been an integral part of marketing, but social media has revolutionized the way it functions. Where before, businesses would create social events purely for networking opportunities, or people would attend expensive trade shows and continuing education classes to network with others in the industry, now all of that can be accomplished online in just minutes. LinkedIn is a social media networking site dedicated to professionals. With LinkedIn, you get the opportunity to add people you know into your network. You then get the opportunity to enjoy cross referrals and access to expert help, along with a growing network of contacts to help market all kinds of business to business services.

LinkedIn is the best of the social media websites for business to business sales. Contract workers and service providers have had incredible success using LinkedIn as a marketing platform. Below, are some tips to get started building a quality network.

1. Update your profile. An updated business profile is absolutely mandatory for those seeking to market on LinkedIn. Make sure to update your profile anytime you have changes in your professional life. When you send out notifications to your network, it is important to have an updated profile so that when they check, they see that the information in your notice and the information on your profile match.

2. Connect with all of your current contacts. The larger your network, the easier it is to grow your network. Start out with your address book and send out requests to all of your current contacts. Take the time to personalize each of your introductions, and mention the details of your connection.

3. Ask for help expanding your network. Talk with your current contacts and ask them to forward your information to others. On LinkedIn, the best marketing strategy is a solid service record. Your current contacts will be able to vouch for your skills and service, giving you a leg up on getting new contacts.

4. Keep your communications concise and professional. Because LinkedIn is geared toward working professionals, it is crucial that you maintain that tone in all of your communications. Avoid bulk mail, and target your communications specifically to the individual. Make sure that you know what you want, so you can communicate it clearly. People in business are very familiar with the idea of reciprocal favors. Often simply making the ask is enough to get the help you need.

5. Put your reputation first. When asking for and performing favors, it is important to keep your reputation in mind. In business, your reputation is a commodity that is worth everything, and once lost it can be impossible to regain. Do not send on frivolous emails, and never send out spam. Provide excellent service to every customer, and enjoy the benefits of a sterling business reputation.

LinkedIn is a great forum for specific types of marketing. It is not the best for direct selling to the general public, but for business to business services and cross industry referrals, it can not be beat.

As more and more companies understand the value of online advertising it becomes difficult to generate solid online leads. However, social media can help bridge the gap. While direct marketing like banner ad campaigns and preferred search engine listings are costly and often ineffective, search engine optimization and social networking is bringing in more sales than ever. When large companies, like Pepsi, show their faith in internet advertising by cancelling their super bowl ad to spend more online, small businesses need to take note.

Online advertising is the wave of the future, and social networking is the advertising that generates sales without selling. Creating a business fan page gives you the opportunity to communicate effectively with consumers without pushing the hard sale. Gentle interaction that is genuine and helpful will go a long way toward bringing in customers. When you put together your fan page, put all of your company information in the info tab. Make sure the full company name, mission statement, brief product and service description, contact information and website are clearly stated. By providing the company information, you allow consumers a chance to briefly learn what your company is about and click through if they are interested in learning more.

Make sure you have a welcome that greets new visitors. Something special for first timers that lets them know they are appreciated and a bit of information about your company. A welcome video is a great idea, multi-media is more likely to capture attention and keep interest. In your welcome message, make sure you include some kind of action request. Ask visitors to become fans, sign up for an email list or leave a comment. Whatever action you ask for should open an opportunity for dialogue between your company and the new potential customer.

Create a tab for people to check out your videos and sign up to receive your tweets. Anything that improves communication between your business and your social network can result in sales. Make sure that customers have a place to say the good, bad and ugly about your company. Give them a reviews/testimonials tab to make their opinions known. Yes, complaints happen, but by addressing them in a professional manner you give other consumers the chance to see your customer service skills in action. Move the communication offline for complaints, but show consumers that you listen to complaints and respond timely. Enjoy all the positive feedback as well. Employees will enjoy reading a heartfelt thank you from the people they have helped.

Include pictures that show both your products and your employees. By putting a face with the company and showing what you do, you create a positive image. Update your status regularly, so that visitors know your page is active. By following all of these steps you allow social media to sell your company without directly pushing sales. Simply showing off your expertise and interacting with people can go a long way toward building a customer base. The person asking the question may not buy today, or tomorrow, but when they are making a purchase, they will come back to the company that provided helpful information.