Social Media: The Final Call

To Be or not to be?

A question that businesses have asked the same amount of times as I’ve heard the words Social Media, which let me tell you is quite a few! So why is the question still lingering? Surely it’s either a yes or no decision & Social Media is by no means the latest thing to hit the internet so why are we still asking the question?

Like others I have spent countless hours scouring the internet hoping to find a magical blog that gives me all the answers to everyone’s questions; the ROI of Social Media, how to get lots of followers, how to make a video go viral on Youtube and a WHOLE heap more. But the disheartening truth is the answers don’t exist. How could they otherwise everyone would be a modern-day internet celebrity. The real answer is just do it!

There is no point reading about all these great ways to use social media and the benefits you will get because everyone is an individual with Social Media and that’s the whole point! It’s a journey that evolves as you progress. It’s not something you can throw money at and watch crowds flock to your presence.

With this in mind I would like to share with you our experience with Social Media and how it has helped us as well as some helpful tips if you are trying to kick-start your presence on the web.

Tip 1: Don’t try take on the whole world. Quite literally. There are hundreds of platforms under the ‘social media’ community all trying to achieve the same result. So why bother? Stick to the few popular platforms and do them well. Just to avoid confusion here are the key players you should focus on:

• Facebook: Creating a community for your customers and fans to keep in touch with you and your marketing activities.
• LinkedIn: Primarily for generating interest and leads through professional relationships. Also useful for participating in groups of relevant interest for efficient networking.
• Twitter: Your primary communication tool to customers and followers.
• Youtube: The most effective channel for promoting your adverts and documentaries.

Tip 2: Call in the support! When your social media activity starts to get more and more active you are seriously going to struggle unless you look for alternative methods of communicating to the community that remove the time wasted logging into different accounts, tracking down comments and responding. With this in mind there are a few key tools that are easy to pick up and use to manage all your accounts in one place. My preferred tools are:

#1: Hootsuite. It is a browser based application that is able to login to multiple twitter accounts as well as multiple facebook accounts and facebook page/groups.

#2: TweetDeck is a downloadable application that is very similar to style and function as Hootsuite. As it is a program it is able to notify you regardless of what task you are doing that an update has been received.

#3: Co-Tweet. A must have for companies who have more than 1 person contributing to Social Media. With Co-Tweet you can grant people access to tweet on behalf of the same account without having full control over the account. You can also personalise tags so your audience know who from your company is talking.

Tip 3: Selling yourself… don’t do it! Social Media is all about conversation and the power of an opinion when thousands of people hear it. The internet allows users to escape annoying advertising such as unwanted adverts from the TV. So how do you think they are going to react when you chase them from the TV to online and carry on? In short; your time with Social Media could be very short if you do not pay attention to what people like and what they want. Of course this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t advertise online. It means you HAVE to make an effort to know your audience. It’s not just a suggestion; people will simply not listen if you preach about your latest offer before you hear theirs. So listen, listen and listen some more then when it’s your turn you will notice the difference.

Final tip: The ROI of Social Media. I think trying to answer the question of ROI in Social Media is the main reason the question of using Social Media still exists. This is not your traditional style of advertising (because they are all in record decline). It’s a revolutionary shift in the way we communicate. Therefore the ROI is not direct revenue all the time. With this in mind I want to share with you one of the greatest achievements we have gained from Social Media and it starts with Twitter.

As an ISP and leading managed hosting provider in NZ; the services we provide rely on our Datacentre’s and the networks we use to provide connectivity. When something happens to the network such as maintenance; in the past users are left in the dark of the situation. Now we are able to post a single tweet acknowledging we are aware of the situation and customers can rest assured service will continue shortly with more in-depth reports available soon after. Twitter has without a doubt provided our customer care team and the company as a whole a revolutionary way to communicate in real-time to support our customers. This is a priceless service that we now rely on and as a result our customers are grateful for the effective service. This to us is one of the greatest returns on an investment.

So don’t try jumping in the deep end of Social Media, it’s not an overnight success story waiting to happen. Don’t be afraid to start in the shallow end and take things at your own pace. Finally don’t be intimidated by how well others or your competition are doing. I can’t stress enough that it’s quality not quantity.

Enjoy your adventure and keep an eye out for my next blog.I leave you with this video on the revolution that is Social Media: