Level Headed Advice (Authors head not pictured)
As the director of marketing for FFWD Brands, I spend a lot of time discussing digital marketing strategies with business owners and marketers. As of late, many of their questions turn back to social media. Namely, should I use it for my business, how do I use it, and how much does it cost? The answers however are a little more complicated. After a brief stutter, I typically launch into a stream of conscious monologue that goes something like: “…well, that depends on your particular niche, your audience, products and services, B2B, or direct to consumer, whether you’re a start-up or a large organization.” Then I say “Oh and by the way, how do you want to use it? Generating leads? Brand management? Customer service?” At this point I realize my questions are trailing off into silence on the other line. I talk fast to begin with, so I can appreciate what it must be like on the other line while I fire a stream of questions and answers in the same breath. So let me try to clarify a few things about this social media stuff.
The Hype:
The tremendous growth that Facebook and Twitter have experienced over the last 18 months is nothing short of phenomenal. Along with that success has been this tidal wave of media-fueled hype about this new opportunity to engage your audience. The opportunity is obvious, but how you approach and engage them is a bit of a gray area. Of course, nobody wants to be left behind, so everyone is starting a Facebook page. What, you don’t have one? This mentality has caused a great deal of panic and knee-jerk spending by otherwise level-headed business owners. I’m here to tell you the instinct to get involved is a good one, but your level of involvement ought to be measured and well planned.
Should My Business Start A Facebook and/or Twitter Page?
The short answer is yes. There are an abundance of social media tools out there; some specifically developed for business (LinkedIn), and others for specific niche industries (Fashion: http://trendmill.com/). Each social media site has a a unique function, so you’ll want to learn more about the top players first before deciding whether or not to engage. A fellow marketer has posted the following breakdown of the social media landscape. Once you get your head around the landscape, search for competitors who may already be using the one or more of these sites. While we are still in the hyped-up period of social media discovery and early adoption, it’s not going away any time soon. Businesses across virtually all industries have found success utilizing social media. Do some research and start getting acclimated to this exciting new marketing channel.
Understand the Social Dynamics:
Understand your audience, establish the tone of your voice and approach with caution. Imagine that you are walking into a room filled with your clients and potential prospects. Are you going to stand in the middle of the room on a table and shout advertising messages over everyone? No you wouldn’t, that would make you look nuts. Consumers are tired of being hammered with messages and doing so on a social media site is absolutely faux pas. This is a social situation and all the rules of face-to-face interaction apply. Approach with caution and strike up a conversation with one person, or a small group of people. That may be as simple as wishing someone happy birthday on Facebook, where many people display this information as well as their likes and dislikes. Keep in mind that not everyone enjoys socializing, especially when someone they don’t know starts the conversation. In fact the majority of your audience can be classified as observers. So identify those who are active and engage them as a peer, not as a salesman. Others will join the conversation if they feel comfortable doing so, but don’t force the conversation.
Prepare and Engage Effectively:
It’s ill-advised to launch into a social media campaign without clear objectives, a defined set of rules for employees, and worse yet, not knowing your core audience. So you have a bit of home work to do before engaging. The first and most important thing you can do is simply listen. Find a competitor or a company in a parallel industry who is already utilizing social media and begin observing the interactions and audience behavior. If you haven’t already compiled scores of demographic data about your audience, there is no better time to begin defining who they are, what they like, where they are located and what drives their purchase decisions, among other things.
I mentioned defining a set of rules for employees. It’s important that any employee who engages your audience have the best interest of the organization and audience in mind. There are a number of do’s and dont’s to consider. Take a look at this sample social media policy for employees.
Clearly define your objectives. You can actually accomplish a lot with social media, and establishing what that is will drive your strategy for engagement. For instance:
- Increase brand awareness
- Manage and build your reputation onlineÂ
- Demonstrate willingness to meet consumers needsÂ
- Improve search engine rankingsÂ
- Increase relevant visitor traffic
- Increase leads and sales
It’s not a Silver Bullet, But an Arrow in the Quiver:
As exciting and hyped up as social media may be at present, it is still just one more marketing channel. The potential to produce leads and opportunities through Facebook and Twitter is real, but I would not suggest moving resources away from another productive channel to accommodate your social media campaign. Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Foursquare, Youtube…these sites should be looked at as extensions of your current marketing strategy and another arrow in your quiver.
Consider how your other marketing campaigns can feed each other to achieve a common goal. Use your website to drive visitors to your Facebook page, but make sure your FB page drives people to a point of conversion back on your main domain or a special landing page built just for Facebook fans. If you already manage a blog, be sure to set up your RSS feed to automatically update your Facebook and Twitter pages whenever you post new content. If it’s engaging enough, your fans will click back to your blog and find more resources to meet their needs. How about your email campaign? How could you promote your Facebook presence and generate more fans? Marketing channels need not compete. So don’t get so wrapped up in your social media campaign that you lose sight of the campaigns that already work and have for years.
Drive Users to a Point of Conversion:
Marketing tools like Facebook and Twitter is a means to an end. And that end is Conversion. The goal is not necessarily to have more Facebook fans than your competition. It’s about developing an audience made up of your ideal clients & prospects, and putting the infrastructure and process in place to move them from you Facebook page to your point of conversion. A conversion could be defined as a prospect making a purchase online, completing a form, picking up the phone or downloading a whitepaper. The point of conversion is the page you have optimized to achieve the desired result. Like any other marketing channel, the means justify the ends.
Growing Up With Social Media:
A small minority of companies are beginning to utilize social media effectively and achieving a defined set of business objectives as a result. As for the rest of us, we have to put in the time and effort to cultivate our presence. Only then will we begin to see measurable results.
Social media marketing is a new and exciting frontier. That being said, we know this medium will continue to evolve into the foreseeable future. Social media websites will come and go, which means our strategies will ebb and flow with the tides. But now is a great time to embrace social media. Mis-steps are inevitable, but learning from your mistakes (better yet, the mistakes of your competition), and committing resources to this channel will pay dividends in the future.
Your Feedback:
The knowledge of the group is always greater than that of the individual, so let’s tap into that. Are you using Facebook or Twitter (or other social media site) to market your business? And if so, what lessons have you learned from the school of hard knocks?
Ryan Goodin is Director of Marketing for FFWD Brands. Ryan has over 12 years experience developing and executing digital marketing strategies for small and mid-size businesses, across a variety of industries.