Social Media Masterclass Tips
I was fortunate this week to be a guest panelist and speaker at The University of Manchester Innovation Centre’s Social Media Masterclass. I shared a platform with Elizabeth Clark from Dream Agility, Annie Bannister from Internet marketing consultancy WSI and Anita Greenhill from Manchester Business School.
We explored the current state of social media and its potential for business. I looked at the move of social media from experimentation to implementation as a business tool and the growth of social media access via mobile devices, such as the iPhone.
It became clear during the discussion that many businesses attending were still at the experimental or consideration phase of social media adoption.
Social media needs to move within the business psyche from gimmick to business tool. Just as the telephone and e-mail before it was initially seen as disruptive and then essential tool so the same process must now be gone through with social media.
It is important that the business understands the difference between research and the use of social media and its potential benefits and costs of actually implementing campaigns.
Many businesses expect to see immediate results from simply having a Twitter or Facebook presence and reasonably high traffic and are surprised when there is no engagement of the audience.
My 10 tips for businesses considering social media use are:
1 Research what your competitors are using (or not) in the social media space. Try to understand what may have led to their decisions. If there have been any particularly high-profile case studies in your sector in social media use, take them apart, see what made them successful.
2 Differentiate between experimentation and implementation. This is a key problem area for many businesses, they are implementing social media as a marketing tool without really having understood how it should be used. A good way to start is auditing what your current team are already using either for leisure or professionally in social media and start to build a picture of what skills already may lie in-house to run a pilot.
3 Select key objectives for your social media campaign, which reflect your strategic business ambitions. Your social media should fit into your overall business strategy. Ask yourself why you are doing any of this? Is it to save costs? Raise profile? Because someone told you too? Whatever your answer compare it to your business goals, if they are not complimentary you may need to rethink your approach.
4 Measure statistics. Social media are entirely measurable, you can measure click-throughs, followers, likes, unfollows etc. Take advantage of these statistics to understand your campaign performance compare them to reports of large-scale usage from the likes of ComScore and Nielsen.
5 Make sure you know what social media you are using and who owns the accounts. It’s a nasty word in social media but have a policy on social media. Make some decisions about who is and who is not officially broadcasting on behalf of the company. Understand who owns the social media you use. If your company has a massive Twitter following on someone’s individual account, what happens if they leave suddenly?
6 Do not block the social media you’re using in your workplace. This will be a struggle for many conservative businesses but if staff are excluded from the social media you are using to promote your business, how can you expect them to participate? A lot of great ideas for social media can come from existing users within teams but only if you give them a chance to take part!
7 Be aware that social media is increasingly consumed on mobile devices. For many users social media is only used on mobile devices, such as smartphones. Why does this matter? One reason is that businesses can now take advantage of location technology to drive business geographically using the ‘check-in‘ features of services such as Foursquare or Facebook.
8 Social media is getting integrated. TV shows for example are increasingly using apps with social media to extend the reach of their broadcasts. This ‘second screen’ technology can also be used with print and other traditional media to bring interactivity to all-sorts of campaigns. Businesses need to think about how their traditional marketing affects their social media and vice versa and what new opportunities are being opened up by the two complimenting each other.
9 Have regular reviews. Keep reviewing what you are using to reach out to customers. A year ago no one was really concerned about Google+ but it is a rapidly growing social network. It is important to move with the times. Your budgets and approach should reflect that the technology is fast-moving and quickly dated.
10 Do it. Although most of these tips have been about getting strategic the best place to start is to open an account with Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ (or something else) and start seeing what the fuss is about. You may hate it or you may love it but at least when you are considering how your business should use you have some direct experience!
By Stuart Smith, Founder and Chief Shepherd of 3 Sheep Ltd. Contact Stuart today to talk about Social Media and Apps can transform your company marketing
Point 6 about companies not blocking access to social media is an important one. I believe the quickest and most cost effective first step for a company embracing social media is to tap into what their employees are already using. Most companies’ existing HR policies that would extend to cover best practice when using social media and when combined with basic instruction on ‘being sensible’, this would provide a great start for embarking on a social media strategy.
Thre is an important potential conflict arising here when we blur employee / organisation members’ use of social media.
Can organisations really tap into employees/members personal social media presence without imposing their corporate mores on the individual’s freedom of expression?
Unless I am a director of a business then I probably want to totally separate my private life from my work life.
What about this scenario?
You encourage an employee to promote your business. Then you discipline them or part company on disagreeable terms.
You may sanction their bad PR in a contract of emoployment with restrictive clauses applying after they have left. But have you got the time or resources to police them and their activities on the web?
Even when you aware of their bad-mouthing you after leaving you still have to chase them down. Could your PR budget be better spent?
I am a sole director but currently feel that when we do employ someone then their terms and conditions will state that they should only refer to their employment by my firm in their LinkIn profile.
What does anyone else think?
We are in new territory here Ken. Certainly many existing employment contracts will already have clauses in about bringing the business into disrepute through actions or statements. But we are moving into a new era many small businesses will not necessarily employ directly but use freelancers and their use of Social Media in relation to any work they are doing may be governed by confidentiality clauses.
If we prevent employees being champions in Social Media then we miss out on our business being part of the wider community. Giving clear guidelines on what is or is not acceptable is better. Social Media is happening and preventing employees being part of it on a business’s behalf is probably trying to out the genie back into the bottle.