It’s no secret that social media, as part of a company’s marketing plan, is no longer a secondary requirement- these days there is a major shift underway as companies focus not only a greater percentage of their marketing effort on social media, but in many cases, the majority of their attention.
But if your company has not taken the leap into social media yet, proceed with caution. Many companies misjudge not only the financial impact it takes to manage your social media message appropriately, but miscalculate how damaging it can be if not taken seriously.
Your Name Is At Stake
Social media can provide real ways to connect, build relations, and directly touch the lives of your customers on a day-to-day basis. As a company brand, this mix of marketing interaction and brand equity is called “brand friendship”.
Like a real friendship, brand friendships are developed slowly, through human trust, belonging, identity, and other human drivers. Good service, a quality product, and the total of your customer-to-business interactions build this equity over time.
These customers are your brand ambassadors- they keep up to date on your company and tell all their friends how great your business is. But as we know with real friends, it only takes a few bad interactions to tarnish the relationship.
Social media puts your brand friendship in overdrive. Now interactions with your customer base can go from a few times a week to multiple times a day.
While every interaction is a chance to bond further with your brand friends, it is also the opportunity to make mistakes- to be overbearing, needy, inadvertently offensive, or one of the thousand different reasons that a good friendship can be too much of a good thing. While we read of the many success stories of social media building brand friendship, it is amazing how quickly it can be rescinded over a 140-character message.
If you’re thinking about a social media presence for your company and saying to yourself, “What have we got to lose?” Then take a step back and think a bit harder.
Reward never comes without risk.
You’re In Or You’re Out.
One of the great ways to kill your brand via social media is starting a social media account without commitment, and then leaving it for dead.
Ask yourself this, what does a Facebook Page with one customer “Like” say about your business? How about a lone Tweet from your company account exclaiming “Hey, World! How do you use this Twitter thing?!” Does this evoke thoughts of confidence, reliability, and competence towards your brand and the people behind it?
The Internet is unforgiving, and what you leave online will be found even if your too busy for it. These dead accounts are a brand liability waiting to happen, so if you have one floating out there already, use it or remove it. Not every company has the resources to start a social media endeavor, but when it comes to social media, as in Star Wars, remember: “Do or do not. There is no try.”
Create Manageable Goals and Expectations
Every company does things a bit differently, but most would agree that important business decisions such as starting a new project, hiring a new employee, or creating a new division start with clear goals and expectations. It’s how performance is measured and justifications are made. But for some reason, many companies have exempted social media campaigns from the normal due diligence, leaving the people in charge (or lack thereof) with undefined expectations and responsibility.
Don’t make this mistake. Social media is like any other important business decision, and should be held to the same scrutiny and expectations, including financial returns on the company’s investment.
While this can be difficult because social media campaigns are measured in non-financial metrics such as website views, followers, and customer reach, but translating between financial and non-financial metrics is possible.
Dedicate Real Resources
A full company commitment along with clear objectives are each a large step towards a successful social media campaign, but dedicating real business resources such as time, money, and people to social media is the most difficult step for companies to overcome.
Social media takes time, and lots of it. Creating a consistent message, voice, and presence for your company is only the beginning. Building a base of brand friends and nurturing those friendships takes large amounts of man-hours. In the end, if you want your customers to be with you for the long haul, you have to match their commitment.
For many companies this means either dedicating a part or full time position to managing a social media campaign, or hiring an outside professional. While this may be too costly for most small companies, for medium to large corporations it isolates responsibility and prevents the scope creep that can happen by giving social media responsibilities to a person who already has assigned tasks.
We’ve come along way in the last couple of years of understanding the powers and the pitfalls that a social media presence for your company can provide. Making sure your company is fully committed, defined expectations, and allocated resources helps lay the foundation for a campaign’s success.
Now what shall your first Tweet be?
