If your company has not dipped its proverbial toes into the social media pool yet, I have some bad news to tell you. According to the latest figures, nearly 90% of all companies are using some form of social media. So, you're behind the vast majority of businesses. But, there's good news, too. Over half of those companies using social media only started doing so in the last 4 – 5 months. Which means, you're not that far behind if you get started soon.
What is social media? It's essentially ways for people (and brands, products and companies) to connect to one another and have their views be heard. It's everything from blogs, message boards and customer ratings online to social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
For business, social media is a research tool that allows you to know what your customers and potential customers are thinking about you, your product, the competition and general issues in your category. Knowing what they are looking for and what’s bothering them allows you to help them achieve their goals in a way that’s beneficial to both you and them. It allows consumers and brands/companies to participate in new ways that allow for positive business results.
Social Media adds a "pull" media to your traditional "push" media lineup. Marketers are used to pushing their messaging at consumers via traditional media. But, the Internet, social media and mobile devices has allowed the consumer to take much more control, to seek out whatever answers they want, to get other’s opinions on products and services. If you feed this need, you will benefit. You can’t control the push media, but you can participate in positive ways. If you connect with your customers and give them value without trying to "sell" them, you will positively impact your brand. For more information on how your brand can provide value, read "Building a Generous Brand"
The most popular social media for businesses seem to be blogs, Facebook and Twitter. But, you don't want to run out and start a blog right away. You need to learn how to listen first. If you jump into a blog right away, you risk bringing your traditional. push marketing mentality into the tone of your blog. Once you've mastered listening to what you customers are saying out there, you can start to respond and then add value to the equation.
I follow a lot of companies in our fields of expertise on Twitter and it's amazing what kinds of innovative things different companies are doing. Henry Ford Hospital had three surgeons Twitter thorugh the entire process of a surgery (whichever doctor wasn't working on the surgery at the time sent out tweets as to what was going on). This gives consumers a front row seat into a world that was never accessible to them before. If you were worried about needing surgery or wanted more info on what went on. You could follow the whole procedure live, as it happened. To get more tips and discover some other innovative ways businesses are usingTwitter, read Michael Estrin's post "Meet the Brands that 'get' Twitter."
So, if you're company's behind the surge into social media, it's okay. Just get started now. You don't have to be a big company to rule social media either. A lot of innovative smaller companies are doing a great job at it. The important thing is to get started. Don't know how and don't have someone to guide you? Email me at mikem@yaffe.com and I'll send you our 5-step guide to getting started in social media. And I'll answer any questions you may have, if I can. No charge, no sell. It's just our way of being a generous brand.
Mike McClure, Executive Creative Director and Social Media Advocate
What are some recent examples of how you have used SM to help your clients?
The first phase of a social media plan is to listen. In monitoring the various forms of social media on the web, we found a disgruntled customer of one client had posted 23 videos on products he’d gotten that he wasn’t happy with. Then, a week later we found he’d started a blog site to disparage their product. Our client would have never known this was going on without listening to social media. Now they do and we’re formulating a plan to deal with the issue.
In another incident we discovered that people in chat rooms and message boards were complaining that our client was giving them insurance they hadn’t asked for and it was showing up on their bill. It turned out to be a miscommunication between the salespeople and the customer. They have changed the procedures and now everyone’s happy.