Social media is very important for business. This is now an established fact because of both the benefits it can provide and how it can help to develop a company. This morning’s conference hosted by Precise raised some very important points of which all businesses need to be aware.
The first question – what are you going to use social media for?
This could be:
- Customer service
- Marketing
- Brand loyalty
- Sales
Depending on which of the above angles a company chooses to focus on, it is important to maintain this activity. A company must have a defined strategy in place before using social media. Once a company starts using these outlets, it must have the full support of all employees so that it will continue to be used to the best effect.
The second question – how do you measure it?
There are various ways, including Google Analytics, social media analytics such as Hootsuite or Tweetdeck, Klout, and PeerIndex. Some of these are very useful because they monitor online traffic movements; however tools like Klout (which measures influence) are not as useful because a computer cannot tell how influential you are, only people can.
Finally, you have to know where your audience is. From a consumer perspective, social media is highly relevant because people are very likely to tweet or blog about you online (take TripAdvisor as an example). From a professional services perspective, this is also the case (take the super-injunction issue as an example). Brand recognition and presence in the marketplace is important for every company because social media has now become so relevant in the business world.
3 comments
Laura Thomson says:
13 July 2011 at 10:22 (UTC 1)
Thanks Ralph, a strong clear message on use and impact of social media, you’re right about the need to be consistent. Not only in frequency but message as well. I.e. the impact from an employee’s tweet about their own company….all that strategy behind using social media to promote the brand being ethical, could be destroyed by a 140 character ‘real insight’ from an employee. The current storm in the print media world is a sharp insight into what happens when the trust is broken…
Ralph says:
13 July 2011 at 11:40 (UTC 1)
Thanks Laura. Indeed, there can be many dangers and it is important to be aware of what can happen. Being prepared is also key – always have a crisis strategy in place too.
The business case for social media « DAA Media – Location Search Specialists says:
15 July 2011 at 10:44 (UTC 1)
[...] By Ralph, Lehmann Communications [...]