Should Your Business Use Social Media?
Category: Susan Cline, Trends, Social Media
With social media comes loss of control, which makes most PR professionals cringe. Because of this, many of our clients are still not sure if or how they can use social media as a marketing and communication tool to promote their products and services.
But the companies that have embraced this level of risk are seeing some big returns. According to a recent study posted by Wetpaint and digital consulting firm Altimeter Group, companies like Starbucks, Dell, eBay and Google who use high levels of social media activity on average saw an increase in revenues by 18 percent in the last 12 months.
This news is great for the large corporations mentioned above, but what about small businesses and organizations? Is the answer still yes? Well it depends. Social media can be a great brand builder or communication tool if you use it correctly. Just because you build it doesn’t mean they will come. Like with any marketing or communication effort, you have to have a strategy when it comes to using social media.
Here are three questions to ask yourself before you add social media to your marketing and communication efforts.
- Do you have the time to manage these tools?
The worst thing you can do is to create a Twitter or Facebook account and never send a Tweet or update your status. This is the quickest way to lose your audience.
- Do you have something meaningful to offer your followers?
Social media for businesses shouldn't be used to announce what you ate for lunch. The information should be meaningful and useful to your followers. For example, you can use Twitter to announce a recent Blog post or a Web site that you think your followers might enjoy.
- How can you use these tools to promote your business or communicate to members?
This is the question many businesses and organizations don't know how to answer. You have to be creative. For example, many restaurants use Facebook to promote upcoming events like entertainers or special party nights. If you are a retailer you might use Facebook to promote new inventory and upcoming sales. If you are an association, you could use Twitter to communicate with board or committee members in an instant. The Red Cross in Lee County, Ala. uses Twitter to mobilize their volunteers when emergencies arise. Again, you have to be creative here but just about any business can find a way to use these tools to their advantage.
So, if you can answer all of the questions positively then perhaps you should try using social media to promote your business. If used well, social media can do several things for your business or organization.
- It can create volunteer advertising.
People will actually sign up to read what you are promoting. How great is that? You can’t buy that kind of PR.
- It can help you build brand loyalty.
Consumers who buy into your brand will follow you and support you.
- It can potentially increase your market area.
Because your followers like you they will tell their friends about you. Or, their friends could see the connection and visit your profile. This word-of-mouse has no boundaries and can extend well beyond your market area.
- It can be cost-effective.
Notice that it CAN be cost-effective. While it doesn’t cost anything to set up a Twitter account or a Facebook page, it does require your time to maintain these tools. Time is money so what is your time worth? Some companies are now posting jobs just for social media specialists. It can be that time consuming. So be prepared. But ultimately, it is an inexpensive way for small businesses or organizations with tight budgets to get their brand out there and to quickly communicate to the masses.
How Do You Rank Socially?
Curious how your social media efforts rate? Check out the new engagementdb.com site. Take the brief survey and you will get an email evaluation telling you how your site ranks against the brands covered in the report.
Posted By: Susan Cline | Date Published: 8.13.2009 | Comments (2)