There are lots of people getting hyper about social media. End-users panicking about whether they have left it too late or worried that they don't understand Twitter. Lots of consultants and social media gurus stirring up the market with claims that anybody not using social media will be out of business in a week.
Gareth Edwards of Arrowsmith Marketing, a provider consultancy, training and hands-on support to small businesses says that there is a much more logical path.
 |
| Gareth Edwards, Arrowsmith Marketing |
What is it?
There is no hard and fast definition of what
social media actually is.
Marta Kagan, a respected commentator on the
topic and current Director of Brand and Buzz at HubSpot, described it like
this:
“Social media is an umbrella term that
defines the various activities that integrate technology, social interaction,
and the construction of words, pictures, videos and audio.”
To try and make it more relevant to the needs
of UK small and medium sized business we prefer to describe social media like
this:
“Bloody good places to tell compelling
stories about what you do to the people who need to hear them”
This approach seems to make sense to people
with limited time, money and resources. It is true however that once you have
got into the swing of developing and publishing those compelling stories then
social media is a great place to share, listen and converse.
Why should you use it?
5 years ago people still asked if it was worth
setting up a website because they weren’t sure how useful it would be. How many
people do you know who don’t use the web to search for and purchase products and
services now? In fact most people forget how much they use the web; it’s just
part of the way they operate.
Social media has reached a point where so many
people use it that at least some of your prospects or clients will have
integrated it into the way they work. Changes in current technologies like TVs
and mobile phones are likely to create ways in which social media slips into the
lives of all but the most cynical. The next generation will simply not recognise
a world without it.
There is some good news. Despite the hype it
isn’t too late to join the party. The market is still developing and you have a
great opportunity to make sense of it all and put together your own strategy for
social media success.
Creating a plan
The people who are getting the most out of
social media are the ones who have thought carefully about themselves and their
clients.
Simply setting up a Facebook page and telling
people how wonderful you are is a waste of your valuable time.
You need to:
· consider who is
involved in the purchasing process for your product or services (it’s nearly
always more than one person)
· find out what social
media platform they use
· understand what they
are interested in or what problem they need solving
· develop some relevant
content
· work out what you
want to happen as a result of your post and how you are going to measure
it
· use the power of
social media to share it on other platforms and to other people
· create a schedule
that allows you to do it all over again within time, resource and money
constraints
Despite the fact that this list looks like
hard work, the good news is that it is easy to get started with social
media.
Keys to social media success
Keep thinking about your business
It is interesting how many times the planning
points listed above actually get people to consider their businesses in a new
light. If you have already gone through a marketing planning process then you
are well placed to move forward with social media. If not then those points make
a good starting checklist. Remember that it’s an iterative process of asking
questions and trying to find answers. Things will change over time, too, as you
develop more knowledge and as your products and service mature.
Remember the technology bit is easy
For many people the big challenge appears to
be a technical one. They have a fear that Twitter or Facebook or LinkedIn will
be difficult to set up and use. In actual fact using the tools is usually very
straight forward. The people that run these sites want to make it as easy as
possible for you to join and use their platforms. It’s part of the way they make
money. There are often advanced features which might require a bit more fiddling
about but there are always help files on the site or you can just Google to find
all sorts of helpful advice.
Choose the right platform
Use your knowledge of your target audience to
choose the most appropriate social media platforms to join. At a high level this
means that LinkedIn might be a better choice than Facebook if you are a
professional services company. It might also mean that you choose a specialist
site such as TES Online (for education) or Yachting and Boating World’s forum
(for ship supplies) rather than the big players.
Compelling content
Audience knowledge will also help to define
what you are going to talk about. Creating compelling content on a regular and
consistent basis is actually one of the harder social media tasks. Every person
and every organisation has more to say than they initially think,
however. Consider all of your content assets: people, products, services,
clients, events, implementations, outcomes etc. Once you get into the right
mind-set the challenge will be to choose which of your “stories” you are going
to use.
Make best use of time
The bigger the organisation the more sense it
makes to create an “editorial schedule” where you a group people together to
discuss what’s been happening (and what’s going to happen) and define a priority
for the stories and a plan for when and where to publish them. At this point it
is also worth considering how much you want to invest in your social media
activity with particular reference to the amount of time it requires.
Some people do get a bit carried away with the
idea that social media is free. Yes you can sign-up for most sites for no
payment but it is really important to start thinking about the value of your (or
a staff member’s) time, important for two reasons.
· Firstly so that you
can make decisions about what level of output and coverage you are going to aim
for (it takes more than a couple of hours a week to generate a regular blog,
send out regular tweets or maintain your Facebook presence.
· Secondly because it
allows you to understand the opportunity cost of using social media as opposed
to other online (or traditional) marketing techniques.
It’s also worth noting that there are lots of
tools available to help you manage your social media activity. Tools like
Hootsuite provide a single dashboard from which you can control a number of
different platforms (including Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn), with features
such as scheduling. This means that you can write a series of posts ahead of
time and plan to release them to suit both your schedule and the activity
profile of your clients.
You can’t manage what you can’t measure
Measuring what’s happening with social media
is made easier by the fact that almost anything that involves a click can be
tracked and analysed. What’s key is that you use your planning process to
determine what metrics you want to track and make sure that you have the right
measurement tools available.
People often get distracted by the stats
related to the social media tools themselves (generated internally like Facebook
Insights or available from tools like SocialBro). While it is good to know how
many fans, followers and contacts you have, it is better to know what the end
result of all your activity is. Big brands are interested in buzz and brand
sentiment but most small businesses really want to know if their activity has
driven visitors to a website or resulted in direct communication.
The website side of things is covered by
Google Analytics – a free tool that will track click throughs from any other
site that you care to mention. As for the direct communication, why not start
asking clients where they found you.
Conclusion
Everybody wants to be told exactly how they
should use social media, but there isn’t a “one-size-fits-all” approach. It
depends on your business, your clients, your products and even your
personality.
Our advice is to remember that the world won’t
end if you decide that social media isn’t for you, but it’s better if you make
that decision based on the outline plan that we have described in this
document.
For those of you who are going to take the
plunge, remember that it’s easy to experiment with social media to find out what
will and won’t work for you. Connecting with your audience will give you the
steers you need to develop more compelling content and provide input into your
wider business activity.
Gareth Edwards
Arrowsmith Marketing
Recommended Reading
“Free Prize Inside”, Seth Godin, Penguin (and
anything else by Seth Godin)
“The New Rules of Marketing & PR, David
Meerman Scott, Wiley
“The Social Media Marketing Book”, Dan
Zarrella, O’Reilly Media
“Groundswell”, Charlene Li & Josh Bernoff,
Harvard Business Press
“Social Media Marketing”, Liana Evans, Que
biztech
Useful links
