Should you be using social media as a marketing channel for your business? Here are four typical approaches as well as their pros and cons.
4 Ways to Approach Social Media
Find out if you should be using social media for business and view four possible approaches should you choose to get involved.
Whether you like it or not, social media channels and social networking are becoming more and more popular with everyday New Zealanders. Sure, you can choose to avoid delving into social media yourself and refrain from creating a Twitter account or a Facebook Page, but by doing so, there is an element of risk that your competitors are already reaping the benefits and you could be missing out on a great opportunity to market yourself through these new and exciting channels.
When it comes to social media, the key thing to understand is that it's already going on all around you, and your business may already crop up from time to time as a topic of conversation. In many cases, the conversation could be quite positive and beneficial for your business even without your involvement. In other cases, it could be quite negative and, if ignored, could be harmful for your business in the long term.
To further help you to decide on whether social media is worth getting into, take a look at this video that provides some interesting statistics:
So here are four ways to approach social media, each with its own pros and cons:
1. Leave it.
It could be that your business is doing just fine. You don't rely on Internet traffic and don't care much about what others are saying about your brand online, so you simply decide to keep away from social media and let it take care of itself.
Pros:
You can focus on other forms of advertising and promotions - methods which you could have been using for years and have worked well for you so far. There's also no need to learn any new technologies and jargon and there's no risk that you could say something on Facebook or Twitter or do something to your Foursquare venue that could look bad for your business or harm your online results.
In fact, when it comes to people saying something negative about your business on Twitter, Facebook or Foursquare, sometimes leaving your fans to stick up in your defence is far more beneficial than if you were to have responded to the comments yourselves. For example, if a user has commented that your products are low quality and expensive, it's easier for a loyal fan of your business to say that they have found your products to be pretty good and in fact better than the competition than it is for you to say that about your own business!
Cons:
You could be missing out on some great, and comparatively low cost, opportunities to promote your business to this increasingly important market.
2. Choose a channel
Throwing yourself in at the deep-end and trying to get into every social media channel possible could end up with you spending so much time on the Internet that you neglect your business! Also, if you don't yet know lots about using social media channels such as Facebook and Twitter for business, there's a risk that you could damage your business' reputation by carrying out accidental 'faux pas' that can leave a negative impression.
For example, simply jumping onto Twitter and interrupting other's conversations to market your latest big sale carries a large risk of being badly recieved. Likewise, creating a Facebook Page and then getting into public arguments with your customers or trying to simply delete negative feedback can also lead to problems in the future.
Instead, it might be better to try out one social media channel and see how well that performs for your business or, requiring a little technical know-how to begin with but requiring very little on-going maintenance, you could simply make it easy for your website and (if you have one) blog visitors to share your content by placing sharing buttons on your content. Our 'Social Buttons' guide explains how.
Pros:
By, in the short-term at least, choosing to get involved with one social media channel only, you're likely to have more time to study and understand that channel better and give it the attention it deserves.
If you find that the channel is working well for you, you could then look at optimising your presence in other channels to further make the most of your online presence.
Cons:
It can be hard to know which channel is the best for your business. With the best of intentions, you may purchase a marketing magazine or ask a friend and find a certain statistic that says something like 'everyone's using LinkedIn right now', but without knowing that channel or what people are using LinkedIn for, you could be wasting your time trying to build a presence through a service that is designed for other purposes.
Again, you could also be missing out on other channels that could be just right for your business and may even consist of a market of existing fans that are just waiting for your brand to make an appearance.
Resources:
Thinking about building a Facebook presence for your business? Before you do, be sure to read our guide, Facebook Pages or Groups, which explains the difference between Profiles, Pages and Groups.
Fancy learning more about Twitter? Check out our guide, How to Twitter, for some tips and information on using Twitter for business.
3. Learn from the professionals
If you have an opportunity to, it could well be worth spending some time with a professional Internet marketer that has some experience in working with brands on social media.
An Internet professional may research your business and your target market and then present you with a report showing which channels are right for you and how to make a start.
This may carry a certain cost but would set you up with the information you need to make a better choice when it comes to figuring out exactly whether you should be getting into social media and which channels you should be focusing on.
Pros:
Through discussing the best options for you and your business with someone who is skilled in the area, you are much more likely to improve the results for your business and save yourself from time and money wasted in other channels that have less value.
Cons:
Without on-going support, you could be setting yourself up for a fall. Figuring out the best way to utilise social media and to obtain on-going results can be tricky, particularly when it comes to managing the balance between investing in social media and spending time and money on other parts of your business.
While a professional can help get you started, you'll need to put a lot of effort into maintaining your presence and responding to your customers and fans in the right way to provide long-term results for your business.
4. Let the professionals take over
There are a number of businesses and professionals that provide social media services specifically designed to take care of your online presence for you. While this might seem strange - that someone else is posting comments and updates on your behalf - in some ways it's no different to hiring a traditional PR company or even to contracting third party companies to carry out your print and radio advertising.
Pros:
By leaving it to the professionals, you can make the most of the skills and expertise of people that have already learnt from their mistakes. Not only are they far less likely to make further mistakes and damage your online reputation, but they will know exactly how to respond to your customers and fans in a way that maximises results for you and your brand.
Cons:
By passing over control to a third party that knows less about your business, you might lose a chance to promote your brand message in exactly the way that you want. Someone that is simply employed to speak on your behalf (as well as on behalf of their other clients) won't have quite the same passion that you do about your products and services and this may come across in the way that they talk about your business online.
You may also lose a sense of immediacy about through leaving it to others - there could be situations in which a response or a decision can only come from you. If a user posts something potentially damaging or serious about your business, a third party may have to contact you and confirm a response before posting a reply, by which time the potentially damaging comment may have been live and unanswered for some time.
Finally, employing a professional would also cost you money. But don't let this hold you back when it comes to at least contacting an Internet marketing professional and discussing the potential for your business in social media.
Online Marketing images from Flickr: ericnvntr, omg, iphone.
