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Social Media #1 - A Company's Friend, Foe

Guest post by: Andy Marken

Article Overview: First in a series on social media

Social Media #1 - A Company's Friend, Foe

Millions Waiting - The reach of the Internet has opened the door for companies to be in direct touch with millions of individuals who want to obtain information and discuss your company, products, services and your capabilities. They have thousands of online outlets to research virtually anything - and anyone - who exists on the planet. The challenge for companies is how to participate with these people, win them over or neutralize their issues. There's so much information and misinformation surrounding the power and magic of social media, company management and marketing probably feel like a deer hypnotized by the headlines of a semi on the highway.

Everyone "knows" social networking is going to change the face of company/product marketing.

It will reshape the relationship with a firm's partners and customers.

It will potentially reshape the consumer's impact on the company.

We all know that word-of-mouth "advertising" is the most powerful - good and bad - promotion for a company that exists.

As a result, companies, departments, individuals are setting up social network pages, signing up for microblogs like Twitter, establishing management/marketing blogs on their Web site and establishing customer forums on the Web.

The challenge is to see the true value of social media for your business, your activity.

Tackling the Unknown

Most managers are (understandably) uneasy about social media activities because it turns the conventional idea of marketing, brand image management upside down.

Today's customers don't want to be advertised at; they want to research products/services in their own time, in their own way. They want impartial opinions from other consumers and product experts about the promises made by the company/product.

The shift of control to customers is a major concern by company executives as they read about the bad publicity that has spread like a wild fire for other companies, executives, products.

But a recent study by Cisco, a worldwide networking company, suggests that being overly cautious is not only short-sighted, the control paradigm has shifted and there is no turning back.

Social media and social networking are here to stay.

The tools, outlets, opportunities and complexity are still in their infancy and will continue to evolve and influence the way "business as usual" is conducted.

To ignore the influence and power of social media as well as the internal guidelines, which must be established, can only lead to misuse by members of the organization and accidental disclosure of company/product information, misinformation/misrepresentation of the company/products/services, its policies, its image.

Forget the Experts

There are no hard and fast rules, recommendations.

In truth, there really are no "experts" you can turn to to deliver "safe," reliable, guaranteed social media approaches, activities.

Anyone who makes that claim is blowing smoke.

The most we can do in this series of articles is help you understand how you can get started, what they - consumers - are doing, explore/recommend how you can get started, what are the customer's options and reasonable responses and activities you can consider implementing to enhance, improve, profit from your consumer relationships.

No company, no individual in this industry sets out with the idea of doing evil.

By carrying out a strong, proactive social media activity the company will gain the consumer's trust, product/service support and their ongoing loyalty.

This is because there are extensive benefits to the company's marketing, sales, product development and service/support activities.

Social Media Marketing - The challenge for an organization - public and private - is to leverage their online relationships--develop sound relationships and meaningful one-to-one discussions to deliver world class, market-leading products, services, customers support.

Before you begin any social media activity, some level of internal governance - usually ad hoc - must be exercised including:

- Which social media initiative - The Web offers a wide pallet of social media activities and you need to determine which one(s) you want to start first, when, how and who will be the "owner(s)" of the initiative(s).

- Employee social media activities - everyone in the organization can (and probably does) have some social networking activity they are already pursuing - Facebook, LinkdIn, blog, Twitter. Controlling these activities is a practical impossibility, so you have to respect/trust the employees, giving them basic ideas and guidelines on what can/can't be done and who they can turn to for assistance/answers when questions arise.

- Third-party management - Every management team relies on outside experts/assistance - public relations/communications, support/service, product design, manufacturing. They need clear guidelines on who can speak on behalf of the company, on what subjects.

- Enabling technologies - Most people don't involve their IT experts when social media activities are initiated because the efforts are conducted outside the company's IT infrastructure. However, ideally/ultimately you will want to incorporate some of the information, findings into your business applications and activities. Plan for the long-term because social media marketing will be with you forever.

Building a relationship with customers can turn loyal customers into strong extensions of the company, its marketing, its products. They can become key figures in recommending, promoting, defending you online and off.

Social media can be your worst enemy and your best friend. Doing it right isn't just "nice," it is important to your organization's and your success.

# # #

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Article Tags: bad publicity, brand image, company executives, company management, conventional idea, customer forums, highway br, image management, management and marketing, management marketing, misinformation, own time, product experts, product marketing, social networking, true value, web br, wild fire, word of mouth, word of mouth advertising



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Re: Kevin needs "social glue" ideas - Hi, I like the idea of "10 items that could act as "social glue" because I am an internet marketer. But I agree with the rest that the 10 recent post is nice. Maybe we should open up a new section in the forums on Social Media...or Social Media Marketing. I will tell you that the world is about 1 1/2 behind when it comes to understanding social media. Building a section now will put EvanCarmichael.com is a great position a year down the road when people realize Social Media can produce more traffic than SEO. Jeff
Re: Kevin needs "social glue" ideas - [quote="WebBizIdeas.com":gvtxsu7g]Hi, I like the idea of "10 items that could act as "social glue" because I am an internet marketer. But I agree with the rest that the 10 recent post is nice. Maybe we should open up a new section in the forums on Social Media...or Social Media Marketing. I will tell you that the world is about 1 1/2 behind when it comes to understanding social media. Building a section now will put EvanCarmichael.com is a great position a year down the road when people realize Social Media can produce more traffic than SEO. Jeff[/quote:gvtxsu7g] Hi Jeff, Thanks for the suggestion. Why don't you start a new post (with a poll) to see if there's enough interest in your idea for a social media section?
Re: UPDATES: New Campaign! New Layout! New Ideas! - GT - thanks for the FYI - I'm not sure if we'll put a link back. Something to consider though! Trent - the new category is "Social Network and Media" which was put in to compliment the Online Businesses category that currently exists. Overall the new categories are: - Looking For, Networking and Events - Review My... - Social Network and Media - Brags and Rants These came as a result of Ringo doing research on other forums and thinking about what could be improved on ours to give a better experience for everyone. I hope you enjoy them! David, I'm looking forward to reading your Brag / Rant!
Re: Marketing 2.0 - What Are Your Thoughts - Hi Shri, Thanks for posting this. I also read it and I believe Social Media is here to stay, until the next best thing comes up. Social media proved to be useful for me many times and I think everyone should use it for their business.
Re: Social Media Marketing Ignorance - [quote="vbn411":7qciluxl]Social Media is space that you have to be in to succeed in our current climate. People are going to be discussing your brand / product whether you like it or not, so you might as well join the conversation and add value. [/quote:7qciluxl] I think that's probably one of the most realistic way to think about it. There's no real textbook way of understanding Social Media, it's the networks of people and their interactions that will exist with or without your input. As for Jennifer, You can always have 2 Facebook pages. Many people do. There is also LinkedIn, which is like a professional networking version of Facebook. The only way to know is to try it.


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