For at least the past five years, professional marketing
organisations have been vigorously writing and presenting social media “how to’s”.
This information provides a useful
foundation and framework for developing a social media strategy. However, for many businesses,
having a social media presence is becoming essential, so which social media
website(s) are most relevant for you?
There is a wealth of social media websites to choose from and
each has a unique way to communicate and deliver messages. Large organisations
often have a high social media presence, usually with a team of employees monitoring
online activity. For example, Coca-Cola Australia is active on Facebook,
Twitter, Flickr, YouTube and LinkedIn.
As social media requires time and resources to be effective,
it is unrealistic for small to medium organisations to commit to many social
media websites.
The image below lists the most common social media
websites available and cleverly notes how they differ using the example of a donut.
Social media was once a task that the marketing manager worked
on when she had a spare moment in her lunch break but it is now becoming a
position in itself, requiring attention outside business hours. In my opinion,
if your business is going to jump on the social media train, do it well or don’t
do it at all.
Another element of social media marketing to consider is the following scenario; when a marketing manager tweets in a rainforest and nobody follows her, she does not make a sound. So how do small to medium organisations generate an online audience? Let me know what you think.
“if your business is going to jump on the social media train, do it well or don’t do it at all.” I couldn’t agree more with that statement. Although social media can be highly effective for a business’ marketing strategy, if a business cannot invest the right amount of time and effort to manage it, I think they should lay off SM completely. If they don’t have people to monitor it continuously, things can quickly get out of control and turn into branding fail (e.g. Woolworths incident!)
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely, consumers are using social media 24/7 so businesses must pay attention to their Facebook, Twitter etc accounts outside Monday to Friday 9am-5pm.
DeleteWelcome to blogging, Laura. A good start.
ReplyDeleteGenerating an audience... hmmm, that's the tough part! It's not simply a case of "build it and they will come"... you have to create real value for your customers to engage. What benefits can you offer them to connect with you through SM?
I look forward to working out some answers to this over the coming weeks.
Thanks Wags. Yes as you mentioned, creating real value for your customers to engage but also making it relevant and personal to them. Depending on the type of industry, benefits that you can offer customers to connect with you through social media would be instant news on new products, how-to demonstrations, discounts, free samples.
DeleteI think getting started is the easier part, getting followers/likes etc etc, and getting them to come back is the hardest part of SM and choosing the right platform is also important as well. Well, we all know if things get ugly in social media it spread really fast. Businesses should definitely be very careful and should know and understand what they are getting themselves into!
ReplyDeleteGood point, Ju. Doing your homework on social media is very important prior to joining up.
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