Without a doubt, few things have ever changed the World Wide Web as dramatically as the widespread adoption of social media. The statistics are downright staggering:
Over 500 million people are members of Facebook, more than 2 billion YouTube movies are viewed per day, a new member joins LinkedIn every second, and Twitter saw it’s 10 Billionth tweet this March (just to name a few).
Long story short, just about everyone that uses the internet uses a social network. That begs the question:
If all your potential customers are already on social networks, why aren’t you?
Image: Gregory Szarkiewicz / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
We get a lot of different answers to this questions and most fall into 2 buckets:
1.) Takes too much time
2.) Takes too much money
These are valid concerns as resources such as time and money usually run in short supply these days. The reality is that any business can create and maintain a level of effective social networking that will result in growth and potentially revenue with a minimum amount of work and investment.
It’s all about finding the strategy that’s right for you, executing it with an emphasis on efficiency, and using some common sense to evaluate the results. Chances are, most businesses already have material suitable for posting on a social network; they just need to get a little creative with the presentation.
I’ve listed a few tips that we’ve used to help our clients establish and grow a strong, effective presence on the social web. We’ve also used these techniques on our own pages and it’s helped considerably. If you’ve got some ideas you’re cool sharing on things you’ve done with corporate social networking please post in the comment section below.
Make it Personal
To quote DiscoverTec Founder & CEO Donny Lamey:
People do business with people, not companies.
Putting a personal touch on your business is a good move and social networks offer a great opportunity to do just that.
Whether you publish video blogs on YouTube, post photos of your staff and office on Flickr or tweet company updates on a corporate Twitter account, anytime you’re able to take the personality of your business and get it in front of potential and current customers it’s a good thing.
The Bottom Line: Social networks are a great platform to show off what separates you from your competitors… You.
Get viral with it
I’ve always found it ironic that nothing inspires fear among computer users then the word “virus”, yet when a video is successfully distributed and consumed by a huge, and sometimes global, audience it’s considered “viral”.
Call it what you will, if you can manage to get your content spread out across a wide range of people, the majority of which would qualify as your target audience, you’re going to grow your brand and get results.
Case in point: the now-infamous “Old Spice Guy” twitter & YouTube based interactive ad campaign. I won’t go into the specifics to save time and but Old Spice reported their sales doubled as a result of this campaign going viral.
The Bottom Line: Start brainstorming ideas with viral potential now, even if it’s just on a local scale. The payoff could be big and the investment small so it’s worth a shot.
Do it right or don’t do it at all
You can’t fake social media, you either do it or you don’t. And savvy users will be able to tell whether or not you’re for real in seconds. If you decide to develop a presence for your business on social networks, and you definitely should, make sure you start with a realistic goal and work hard to stick to it.
For many new clients that we help with social media, one Facebook update a week is a good start. Buy a digital camera, you can pick up a good one nowadays for under $100, and start taking pictures around the office of stuff you’re doing every Friday.
Make it fun, we’ve given out prizes to people that contribute to our social networks just to ensure we always have fresh content. It’s worth it as morale gets boosted, the office is more fun to work in and over time you will get results.
The Bottom Line:: Don’t put a Twitter button on your homepage and go tweetless for 6 months, take the time to set a goal then meet regularly to make sure it’s getting achieved.
Don’t be a wallflower
The key to being social online is the same as it is offline, you’ve got to start a conversation and make it interesting enough so that people not only respond, but find it compelling enough to remember and potentially share.
Can you think of anything that your business has done that would fit this criteria? I bet you can, and I also would bet bigger that you didn’t share it on a social network geared at your target audience.
So what are you waiting for? Start socializing now and it won’t be long before you notice the benefits. We can definitively find several examples of where we’ve earned new business from both existing & new customers based on our activity on social networks.
If you’ve got any good stories about how social networking has helped you or your business grow feel free to post them below, and as always, we’re ready to help if you’re ready to start getting your business more social.
Here’s some good links that helped me write this post:
Cool infographic on social media & mobile web: http://www.pamorama.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/ft-new-marketing-trifecta.png
Great info on stats and usage: http://econsultancy.com/blog/6205-revised-mind-blowing-social-media-statistics-revisited-and-20+-more
