Socially Acceptable
“I just don’t get how this whole ‘Social Networking’ thing works.”
“Is this worth my company’s time?”
“When’s this fad going to end?”
We’ve all asked these questions. But what separate us are those who’ve found the answers and those still searching (by the way, this isn’t a fad and it’s not going to end.)
Attending a recent webinar on Using Social Networking and Business, I picked up a few tips on developing a business’ social network footprint.
Note: The webinar was hosted by the marketing folks at FastPitch, a business-oriented Social Networking site (although they didn’t tell the attendees this).
So besides the ulterior motive of promoting their site, here are some of the bits and bytes I gathered on how to manage and promote a business using social network platforms:
First, a couple of definitions:
Social Networking is the community you create; the audience you reach. This is the number of friends, contacts and/or followers you communicate with via MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.
Social Media are the promotion tools you use to communicate. This is the user-generated content you push/post/direct people to. On-line video content, blogs, microblogs hold the message/image you attempt to present.
Realize the most popular sites are designed to promote the individual, either for social interaction and sharing, or career/resume profiles.
Sharing with contacts and friends (the people in your Social Network community, or audience) is constant among most sites.
So which one to choose?
- Does your company need a Facebook page?
- What about a company blog on your web site?
- Should your communications staff be Twittering?
- Or are you better off by having your CEO host discussions on LinkedIn?
The best advice I’ve heard: YES.
The new media user has many choices, and they’re choosing to be everywhere; receiving information in many ways.
Cross-promoting is the best way to spread your message across your various Social Media tools.
Announce through Twitter the latest blog post (i.e. news release) you’ve posted to your web site.
Release a new YouTube (or other on line video platform) video, directing people to contact you on your company’s Facebook page.
You will find your audience will use various methods to keep in touch with you, so communicate across all your venues.
Note: make sure your message is clear and consistent with every format you use. You may have many ways to speak to your audience, but please speak with the same voice!
This means maintaining brand awareness along with consistent messaging!
So how can you best apply the Social Media tools to reach your Social Network?
Blog: treat the blog post as a news release, but also as a chance to provide direct communication ‘from the top’. Short messages from company leaders (either internally or externally directed) take the ‘filter’ away from the messages. Basically: NO MORE CORPORATE/LEGAL SPIN (readers pick up on this fairly quickly).
It is very important you use your other social media tools to promote your blog!
“The average blog has just one reader…the blogger themselves!”
-Eric Schmidt, CEO, Google
Twitter: First, decide how you will use the 140-character limit microblogging site.
- Will you use it for Business news only?
- OR will you have a ‘human/personal side’ to it.
This may cause you to create more than one account:
- One for your CEO or communications staff to use to provide interesting (but slightly off-topic) notes to entertain or educate your audience.
- Another account for your blog promotion, news releases, corporate announcements.
It is very important you use your other social media tools to promote your Twitter feed!
Links to your feed should live in your corporate e-mails, on your blog, on other sites/profiles you have. Invite people to follow – and follow them back.
Social Networking is not an Internet megaphone merely used to yell out your message.
Social Networking is a very large party; where many gather to interact and learn about each other, sharing ideas, media, and discussions.
E-mail marketing: Keep things simple.
One message per e-mail; we don’t enjoy reading pages full of text detailing your 8-stage operations model. Your sales staff has a “15-second elevator pitch” because they know their audience has neither the time nor patience to listen to a long story. The same audience doesn’t want to read the epic either.
Frequent messages (with a consistent theme) keep your image fresh in your audience’s mind, just don’t go too far beyond a daily e-mail. You want to be memorable, not annoying.
Limit the colors and graphics. Many ISP’s will block e-mails full of various coded elements, so keep the colors and pictures to a small number.
Search engines are your associate sales/marketing staff.
Seventy-five percent of social networking traffic is directed from search engines.
Grow your footprint across all networks; incorporate consistent keywords in your profile pages, tags in your blog posts, headlines in your news releases.
Those keywords should be what define your business, and if applicable your location. There are people who are looking for your services but don’t know you exist. Search engines make it easier for those folks to find you.
Creating and managing the footprint may take some effort, anywhere from 10-20 hours a month.
If you still have those three questions, and are wondering if you should dip your toes into the Social Media pool, think about this:
Mashable.com reported the one-year growth from Feb. 08 – Feb. 09 for 20 different Social Networking sites.
Eighteen of them increased audiences!
The Social Network community is growing.
Your potential audience of clients and customers are growing.
Fad or no fad, it’s time to jump on.
