One cap doesn’t fit all in social media marketing
It’s all too easy for businesses to get caught up in this ‘social media’ thing and get themselves set-up on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and other platforms without really thinking about their objectives and having a strategy.
Social media marketing is just like any other form of marketing – it needs to have clear, measurable objectives and be bedded into the overall marketing strategy of the organisation.
The kind of questions you need to ask yourself are:
Who am I trying to engage with?
What messages to I want to get out to them?
What do I want to achieve from my efforts?
If you are a large brand with wide reach who wants to engage with consumers then a Facebook page is probably right for you. However, if you are a small, local company operating in quite a specialist are then you might be better concentrating your efforts into Twitter.
I would recommend that anyone who is already operating in the world of social media and doesn’t have a clear strategy sits back and assesses their activity to make sure they are getting the most out of what they are doing.
After all, time is money as they say!
Getting started in social networking and not getting disheartened..
There are a lot of people who think they are ‘doing’ social media by setting themselves up on Twitter and Facebook, adding a few contacts and sharing a few posts, then losing heart because they don’t feel that they are getting anything back.
I would say it takes a good couple of months to grow your network organically and start to build relationships with those people on your network through carefully thought out messages.
Social networking is much like face-to-face networking. It is hard at the start because you don’t know anyone and it all feels a bit uncomfortable, but once you have been a few times you start to build up a network of contacts, who then become customers/suppliers/clients, and your net widens with each visit.
The same principles apply to social or on-line networking. Twitter and Facebook are merely tools that need to be used properly to build up a good quality, reliable network of people that are easy to communicate with and, once trust is built, become customers.
It is all about relationship building. There is no quick fix but with a little time and patience your contacts on Twitter and Facebook could become your most valuable resources.
Social media is just an extension of your brand…
From the many conversations I have about social media one thing is apparent, that it still seems like a scary other world to most people.
This is a shame because using it for business is a great way of getting information and messages out and engaging with customers and other businesses.
Social media is just another medium in which to spread your message and also, in the opposition to more traditional forms of marketing, engage in conversation with your audience.
However, it is important that all ‘posts’, ‘tweets’ and/or ‘status updates’ must reflect and reinforce the organisations brand. This is why I would recommend that any brand that is thinking of dipping its toe into the world of social media marketing, or already has a presence there, seriously considers putting in place some kind of strategy or hiring a social media agency.
Yes, it is widely thought that the best thing to do to get started is get set-up and start posting/tweeting/following but if you aren’t following the right people or putting out the right messages you could, potentially, be damaging your brand’s reputation.
Related Link:
What is Google+ and should my organisation be using it?
Google+ (also known as Google plus and Google circles) is Google’s most recent offering to the social media market.
It is currently only available to those who have an invitation (mostly social media geeks) as a field test. It, apparently, has lots of bugs at the moment that the developers are constantly working on to iron out before it goes ‘live’.
From what we can tell it is similar to Facebook but allows the user to create ‘circles’ of friends so that certain updates only go to certain people you are connected with. E.g. you could have a ‘friends’ circle, a ‘family’ circle and a ‘work colleagues’ circle. I can see this being a popular function as it allows more censoring when doing status updates – so as not to offend Auntie Jean! It also has the ability to jump into an instant online video chat room with selected contacts.
As with all new social media platforms Google+’s success will not happen overnight and will be totally reliant on people signing up to it – any social network is only as good as its users.
I can see that this time Google may have created a platform that has functionality that individuals will find user friendly and more socially advanced than Facebook.
Currently it does not strike as a platform that will work particularly well for business, although time will tell, and I do not think it is in any danger of knocking Twitter off of its perch.
So, in conclusion, one to watch but not to worry about jumping on board with just yet.
Some very good related articles:
What is social media and why does my business need to use it?
Social media are on-line platforms that are used to create networks and share information. The most commonly used across all areas of business are Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube.
Each of these platforms operates slightly differently but the one thing they all have in common is their ability to allow their ‘users’ to connect with each other instantly and share information. That information could be a link to a website, a video clip or just an opinion – but it is this sharing of information instantly and worldwide that makes social media such a powerful method of communication.
Even if your organisation is not using social media proactively you are probably being talked about in the social media sphere.
Social media is no longer just operating in the realm of teenagers and geeks it is a recognised channel of communication that should be a part of every organisations marketing mix.
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