Re: Social Media Presence
MEMO
As you requested, I looked into how we can benefit from having a social media presence in addition to our web site. When I looked into it, I saw three main reasons to have a social media presence; to keep our existing clients happy, to attract new clients and to keep an eye on the competition.
Background
Social media is here to stay. While many businesses are now looking to take advantage of the targeted advertizing opportunities it offers, having a strong presence on the social media sites is as important. Many marketers feel that this presence is even more important than advertizing on the same sites. All over the world, professional social media marketers prefer a presence to advertizing on the same sites..
Although they agree on the importance, they also agree that it is difficult to evaluate the financial returns for their efforts. Particular problems cited regarding maintaining a social media presence are reaching the appropriate fan or follower base and turnover. Looking at how professional allocate funds gives a valuable insight. .
Keeping social communities engaged and can help maintain a relevant fan base. Offering special discounts that are only available to a specific fan base can help pinpoint what sites, and what particular efforts are most effective. This means that we are dealing with a bell curve of potential benefits. At one end insufficient efforts are wasted, at the other we face the rate of diminishing returns. Clearly, this is one opportunity we must work to stay on top of.
Breaking the benefits down into individual components will help us select which sites will give us the best returns. This way we are not comparing apples to oranges. Here is my list of what we want from social media.
- The criteria people use to compare us with our competition,
A Social Media Presence Should Be:
- Timely
- Relevant
- Easy to Maintain
In Conclusion
The question then is not so much should we have a social media presence; it is what are the most effective social media sites for us, and how many resources should we allocate in order to maximize our return from social media. Since this is the case I did a comparison of three of the main social media sites so we can decide where to focus our efforts.
Poor - The whole terminology on Facebook is that of “Friends” and “Fans” Everyone knows there are no secrets here. We will not get any candid information from Facebook.
Very Good - Facebook friends “Like” - “Comment” - “Share”
Very Good - Because they perceive of themselves as friends, clients will let us know if they received good or bad service; especially good service
Fair - We may get a few candid responses, but it is not likely since potential customers will be chatting with our Friends and Fans
Very good - This is THE site for this. We will get to hear all the wonderful things people say about us.
- The criteria people use to compare us with our competition,
Fair - If a Friend of a Friend makes an inquiry, we will sometimes get good insight.
Poor - Everyone will expect that the only reviews we post about ourselves will be good ones.
Very Good - Our friends and Fans will be recommending us to their Friends.
Very Good - We can ask ours Friends to introduce us to any of their Friends
Fair - For all the same reasons that we are likely to get positive feed back from Friends, that is what we will most likely hear about our competition.
A Social Media Presence Should Be:
- Timely
Very Good - Facebook has a steady “real time” feed
- Relevant
Very Good - Facebook is all about us, our Friends and Fans
- Easy to Maintain
Fair - Depending on the traffic, it should be checked regularly to make sure we are staying current. We should allocate five minutes, three times a day, for a total of fifteen minutes a day to maintain a social media presence on Facebook
Fair - Twitter is all about impulsive responses. We are more likely to get reflexive rather than reflective reactions here.
Very Good - An immediate response to a customer on Twitter will go a long way to building a good trust relationship.
Very Good - We are also more likely to get negative feedback here.
Fair - We may get a few candid responses, even a few more than Facebook, but it is still not and unbiased source of information.
Very Good - Tweets are immediate responses, in 140 characters or less, perfect for testimonials
- The criteria people use to compare us with our competition,
Fair - We may get inquiries like “do u have” but because Tweets are short we will not be able to hear evaluations
Very Good - If we Re-Tweeting positive feedback it will circulates quickly. Twitter is a gossip site.
Very Good - We are likely to hear from referrals when they are ready to buy.
Fair - Depending on the size of our Twitter following and their followings we may get to meet new people.
Fair to Very Good - Twitter is a gossip site and people do talk.
A Social Media Presence Should Be:
- Timely
Very Good - Twitter favors brief immediate responses.
- Relevant
Fair to Very Good - If they are talking about us we will hear, If they are talking about something totally irrelevant we will hear that too.
- Easy to Maintain
Fair to Very Good - If they are Tweeting about us it could use up some time.
Pinterest
Very Good - Pinterest boards are perfect for getting unbiased feedback
Poor - It will difficult and time consuming to establish relationships like that here
Very Good - The bulletin board will serve us well for this
Very Good - Pinterest boards are perfect for getting unbiased feedback
Fair to Very Good - Testimonials here tend to be more low key
- The criteria people use to compare us with our competition,
Very Good - This is a good site to look at the entire market place
Very Good - This is what bulletin boards are for
Fair - Facebook and Twitter are better for this. Pinterest will spark interest
Very Good - This is a good place to look for possible connections
Very Good - This is a good site to find out what they are doing and what others think.
A Social Media Presence Should Be:
- Timely
Fair
- Relevant
Very Good
- Easy to Maintain
Very Good
Works Cited
Corliss, Rebecca. "How to Monitor Your Social Media Presence in 10 Minutes a Day." 08 04 2009. HubSpot. 11 08 2013 <http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/4663/How-to-Monitor-Your-Social-Media-Presence-in-10-Minutes-a-Day.aspx>.
e marketer. "Social Media Presence More Important Than Social Media Ads." 2013. e marketer. 11 08 2013 <http://www.emarketer.com/Article/Social-Media-Presence-More-Important-Than-Social-Media-Ads/1008634>.
Mills, Eric. "Why A Strong Social Media Presence is Important for Your Business ." 25 07 2012. National Institute for Social Media - NISM. 11 08 2013 <http://nismonline.org/why-a-strong-social-media-presence-is-important-for-your-business/>.
U.S. Office of Personnell Management. "Social Media Presence." 2013. U.S. Office of Personnell Management. 11 08 2013 <http://www.opm.gov/news/social-media-presence/>.
