Well…you were right. There is a bit to know about social media, but it’s not as daunting as you think to introduce social networking as an additional way to market your business. There are some key things you’ll need to consider before you take that step into the world of social networking.
What you have probably gleaned already is that traditional media channels (print, radio and TV) are finding themselves bi-passed, slowly replaced by consumer generated word-of-mouth advertising over social media networks.
Consumers don’t care anymore about what businesses say about themselves. They prefer instead to interact with businesses, with current and past customers before feeling confident about purchasing. In other words, it is getting to the point now where you can no longer ‘say it’ in your marketing campaign in the hope that you’ll reach your audience. You have to get your customers to say it to each other.
This is a real power-shift, which has been facilitated by the proliferation of social media networks, such as Facebook, Twitter and Bebo. These sites allow consumers to access each other online.
To get some perspective on user activity, according to a recent Neilsen report, more than four in five New Zealand Internet users (82%) have reported to have visited Facebook in the year to July 2010, 70 percent have a Facebook profile, and 79 percent of social networkers name Facebook as their main social networking platform, up from just 19 percent in 2007. Of those who say Facebook is their main profile, 54 percent visit the site at least daily, and 39 percent are on the site for at least four hours a week.
It doesn’t stop there. Nearly two million online New Zealanders (1.92 million) have looked to fellow Internet users for opinions and information about products, services and brands, and New Zealanders’ engagement with online word-of-mouth communication is going to increase in the coming years, as social media plays an increasingly important role in consumer decision making.
Business success is now based on personal referrals, and on-line that means a trusted virtual contact. A repeated statement is “78% of consumers trust peer recommendation, while 14% trust advertisements”. So what does all this change mean for you as a business owner?
It means that if you are thinking about adopting some form of social media into your business marketing mix it will be important for you to carefully manage the process of your customers becoming your promoters.
Because there will be limits to content control and about what is said about your company online, you’ll need to be clear about what strategies you will use to manage this. For example, which staff members will you use to monitor and respond to online content? That person will become the voice of your brand in the market, so you’ll have to determine who is best to post content on your behalf.
With this, you’ll need to think about what quality controls you will put in place and what can be done to mitigate problems when they occur.
The documented reasons why businesses fail in their attempt to incorporate social media range from having no strategy at all, trying to ‘Push’ products and services with too much marketing spin, having no real engagement with their fans, never updating their sites or replying to posts, or worst of all, antagonising users for their opinions or content.
The other thing businesses fail to realise is that consumers who are engaged in social media on a daily basis are savvy and know when businesses are in it for the wrong reasons. As a consequence, they simply don’t return and will often tell others about it. You can’t afford to get this wrong.
Despite all the pitfalls and things to think about, there are a number ways you can limit the risks associated with adopting social media into your marketing mix. First, you’ll need to determine who your audience is and then develop a style and message for reaching them. Gradually develop your site. You may want to run an in-house trial first, utilising staff to build momentum and then roll it out to the wider on-line community once you have established that your formula works for your business.
You also want to ensure that you update all your content regularly and be prepared to comment on people's posts, whether positive or negative. Try to establish yourself as a leader in your industry to keep people coming back to your site. This can be achieved by adding specialised content or providing links to other industry activity. You’ll need to find a way you can add value.
To get started, your financial investment should be low. As a general rule of thumb, social media updates can be made within 15 minutes per day. There are no capital and equipment investment required, as social media platforms are solely web-based. So…if you have a PC, a web-connection and a good social media strategy, you should be good to go. If you need more tips on how to integrate social media into your marketing efforts click here.
