Your Business and Social Media (No 'Brochureware'... Please ...

A recent Fortune?article?made an interesting point about the social media efforts of most companies:?

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?Most companies? early efforts with social [media] have been the equivalent of

?brochureware? (just?as they were on the internet back in the 1990s). And

although levels of sophistication are?growing?most social

commerce?experiments have a long way to go.?

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If the goal of your company?s social media efforts is to engage with your customers and facilitate communication with them, what do you need to do other than have your social media accounts be ?brochureware? for your company? Just like your company has (hopefully) embraced the power of a good website, in order to keep up with the times you need to engage actively on social media or be left behind.

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1. Knowledge is POWER

The first thing you must to do is understand the nature of the beast. One cannot use social media or understand its power unless you have at least a basic understanding of what it is generally?and the major platforms that are available to use.

Popular platforms social media include:

• Facebook: Currently the largest social network on the internet, built on the concept of friend-to-friend connections. 995+ million monthly active users.
• Twitter: Facilitates real-time personal ?status updates? through short broadcasts (up to 140 characters) to other subscribers. 500+ million active users.
• LinkedIn: An online networking community for business people. 161+ million active professional users
• Pinterest: Users organize and share photos they find on the web via virtual pinboards. 10+ million monthly active users.
• Google+: Google?s answer to Facebook, users can share content and connect. 250+ million active users.
• Sina Weibo: The Chinese version of twitter, with seamless integration of pictures and videos. 300+ million users. 22% of the Chinese population is on Sina Weibo.
• Ren Ren: The Chinese remake of Facebook. 160+ million users, with 31+ million active monthly users.
• Blogs: A web site on which an individual or group of users record opinions, information, etc. on a regular basis. i.e. You are reading a blog post right now.

Using social media for your company broadens the audience for your messages significantly. Additionally it gives you another avenue to engage and communicate with your customers.?66%?of adult online users own and actively engage with one or more of these social media platforms. Social media is giving the world the ability to connect and communicate with each other in ways that were never possible before.

CAUTION: Social media is a fantastic tool to engage and communicate with your customers, but there are some key facts you need to be aware of when using social media in order to be successful at it.

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2. Have a PLAN

One huge draw for social media is that there is no cost to sign-up for most social media platforms. However, sometimes it does cost to upgrade your account from the basic model, but for all intensive purposes it is a free tool for your company to use.

Social media accounts may be free to sign-up for, but engaging with audiences on the various systems can be extremely time consuming, therefore the ?labour? can quickly become quite costly. To avoid this, set and keep a time limit for how long you want to spend on social media each day and stick to it.

Also be cautious about what you post. Make sure you thoroughly read the links you post so you know what they say, and do not post anything that could reflect poorly on your company. During the London 2012 Olympics, two athletes ? a female athlete from Greece and a male athlete from Sweden ? were kicked off their respective Olympic teams for racist remarks they each posted on their respective twitter accounts. Social media is a fantastic tool for you to use, but if you?re not careful it can be turned against you.

Take a page out of the Internal Olympic Committee?s (IOC) book. They had strict guidelines regarding athletes? use of social media platforms and what constituted proper use of social media. While some people criticized the IOC for the attempting to ?limit free speech?, they were smart to acknowledge that prohibiting social media altogether would be impossible (for an interesting and opinionated wrap up of social media and the 2012 London Olympics see this Wired.com?article).

By creating a guideline and roadmap of what you would like to do and accomplish on the various social media platforms you can limit the amount of time spent on social media, keeping that labour cost under control, as well as head off some of the potential PR disasters that can result from not having a plan.

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3. The MEDIUM is the MESSAGE

As fellow Canadian?Marshall McLuhan?(a renowned communications theorist) says ?the medium is the message?.

Social media should complement and NOT replace your existing marketing tools.

The potential audience for your social media marketing is massive, but it is just one method of getting your message out there. Do not disregard the effectiveness of traditional marketing initiatives. Also while your social media marketing does not need to be the exact same as your other marketing endeavours, it should not be completely different in tone and messaging as you do not want to confuse your customers.

Social media provides you with opportunities to continue to engage with your audiences? it gives your customers another avenue to research your company which can build further trust in your product.?[C1]

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4. Be SELECTIVE

Be selective not only with what you choose to post but with what platforms you choose to use. For example, do not have a Pinterest account unless you believe that you can AND WILL use it (properly) to get your company?s message out there. This goes back to the point about social media being time consuming ? only use the platforms that are worthwhile because you can waste a lot of time using social media sites that in the end will have no affect on your goals. Also, unless you are going to ACTIVELY use your social media accounts do not have them. An inactive page reflects poorly on your company.

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5. Social Media ENGAGEMENT

Use a social media engagement system, like?Hubblr. These systems help you save time as you can control your various social media accounts from one platform. A social media management tool enables you to spread your message with ease across all of the social media accounts you use. These management systems also have built in reporting metrics, which aids in justifying the time and money spent on social media efforts, something that can be difficult to otherwise quantify. Social media management systems can also be extremely useful in situations where you?re managing more than one brand?s social media accounts, allowing you to quickly move from account to account.? A good social media management system will also prevent you from accidently posting to the wrong client?s account. Additionally, most of these systems offer the option of scheduled tweets so you can pre-write posts.

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In summary?? Have fun with your social media program, don?t be afraid to show your personality but make a plan so you ensure that your messaging remains clear and targeted to your relevant audiences. A note of reference I like to follow when doing my company social media posts; Is what I?m writing/saying something I?d be comfortable with my grandmother or elderly neighbour reading? If the answer is no, perhaps you need to re-consider what you?re about to post. Happy social media-ing!

Source: http://socialmediatoday.com/meghan-somers/810221/your-business-and-social-media

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