By Amber Naslund 

Monday, June 20, 2011 

As business people, we can’t help but look sideways once in a while to see what the competition is doing. And gleaning strong insights about your competitors can help you make smarter and more nimble business decisions, especially thanks to the fast moving and information rich nature of the real-time web.

But success in your industry or your niche isn’t always about going head to head with more and louder marketing, creating splashy but fleeting campaigns, or just doing more, more, more. Social media provides companies of any size and stripe the opportunity to take a few considered, practical steps toward standing out amongst the pack and actually creating and providing value for the customers and prospects they serve.

1. Be Responsive.

So much of being successful in social media is just about being present and responsive. Regardless of whether your competitors are being responsive themselves, you can stand out by being available, interested, and helpful in the moments when your customers and community need you to be.

For starters, that’s about answering compliments with a gracious “Thank you!”. Providing answers to questions that people ask you directly, or at least getting them to someone that can help them in another channel. And perhaps most importantly, responding – openly and publicly – to complaints or criticisms with a simple acknowledgement that you’re sorry, and would like to find a way to help.

If you really want to knock it out of the park, take your response to another level and learn to look for and spot the point of need in your communities. Be relevant, helpful, and friendly, and you’ll go a long way to making your mark in your industry simply by being willing to lend a hand (even when it might not net you an immediate benefit).

2. Share Knowledge

Your content is important, and sharing news or information about your products, services, expertise, or people is part of why you’re engaged in social media to begin with.

But if you really want to stand out? Become a resource, too. Share great, informational content that you find on your own adventures through the web (this is a great way to get your community team engaging between their typical points of response). That can be from industry resources, blogs you read, the mainstream news. Think about your customers and community *between* their moments of doing business with you; what interests them? What other things are they likely encountering in their lives or business? How about just sharing something interesting and fun that’s totally off the beaten path?

Sharing what you know and find – even if you didn’t create it – provides lots of opportunities for people to connect with you not just when they need what you provide, but when they’re looking for great resources. Be the curator and the resource for all sorts of great stuff and help your customers find value in their relationship with you for whole new reasons.

3. Act on Feedback

Listening is fundamental, and we talk about that a lot around here.

But acting on what you hear is important, and sharing and showing that action can be a differentiator indeed. If you’re gathering feedback about your products and services and using it to improve what you do, demonstrate that somehow. Use your online community to share the improvements you’re putting in place. Share the best and most useful feedback from your customers (yep, even if it suggests improvements) and respond to it publicly with how you’re putting that to use, and consider rewarding or at least acknowledging the contributors that are driving the changes you’re making.

No one expects a business or a product to be perfect all the time. And it’s true that social media success requires a sound product or service as table stakes.

But we love and respond to the companies that not only can acknowledge and pay attention to the feedback they get, but take it to heart and use it to make things better.

So what would you suggest?

How are you using social media engagement and participation to stand out in your market or industry? What are you doing that’s not just visible, but that’s building something that matters to the people that want to do business with you? How has social media helped you gain that competitive edge?

If you’re a customer, what makes one company stand out from another in your eyes? What are the factors that can help a company win your business?

Looking forward to your comments.

Taken from The Hospitality Daily http://paper.li/forfeng/follow-friday-favorites#!stories