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Socialising In the Right Way

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If you don’t know your Twitter from your Facebook or you LinkedIn from your Digg then it’s safe to say you’re not taking advantage of the many opportunities available to your business.

Social networking can be an effective way of disseminating information about your brand, creating goodwill among your customers and learning about what your audience thinks and expects of your company.

You may think that every business out there already has a Facebook page and a Twitter feed, but this isn’t the case – yet. This article aims to demystify the world of social media, avoid some common errors and harness the full power of social media marketing opportunities.

Find an existing social network you can add value to
Which ones you choose depends entirely on your business and your target market. If you’re B2C then look at Facebook or Myspace; if you’re B2B look at LinkedIn or some of the other niche networks. Once you’ve joined don’t be tempted to just slap a logo and some selling copy. These pages are highly personal and it’s important for you to actually talk with people, engaging them in adult to adult conversations.

Create community within your own website
You don’t have to add a massive forum to your site. Start by enabling visitors to bookmark the content of your site to various networking sites. Another idea would be to add user generated product reviews to help you foster a sense of community.

Accept the negative as well as positive
There is always a fear of posting anything negative about your business. However research has shown that those companies who are honest and open with their feedback are viewed as more credible and trustworthy.

Monitor and learn
You can gain a wealth of knowledge about your audience by reviewing their social networking activities. The comments posted on these sites about your products and services are in the main unsolicited. They are more likely to reflect your customers’ immediate needs, likes and dislikes.

Represent yourself
Many companies used to let pretty much anyone communicate with their customers. The result could often be damaging with communications that diluted the brand message and the company image. You should only enable qualified employees to engage with your audience via social media; train them how to spread the word about your business.

Communicate your strategy
Make sure you communicate your strategy to everyone within your organisation, letting them know specifically where and how you would like them to engage with your audience. It’s all about protecting your message and brand so that they are strengthened rather than weakened through your social media activity.

Prioritise
Not all online conversations carry the same weight and it’s impossible to track and measure every single forum or networking site. Understand what does and doesn’t matter to the development of your business. Adding to a conversation about a new product or customer feedback may be worth engaging in, whilst others aren’t. Use your resources wisely to get the maximum benefit from your activities and again set these down in your strategy.

Don’t just sell; contribute
Although your primary aim will be to sell more, you need to wrap your sales messages carefully to avoid alienating potential and existing customers who don’t view social media in the same way. You need to offer your audience things that go beyond promotion; engaging with them to help them better understand the industry and see the value you can provide.

Be consistent
Many companies start out brilliantly in the beginning but the effort starts to reduce after the initial push. Staying involved with your network is the only way to make this form of marketing work. You need to be there daily to respond and add valuable content to keep your audience interested and help it to grow.

Quality rather than quantity
Sites like these are all about interacting with people. There’s no point in having hundreds of links through to people that you don’t directly interact with. You can disseminate information to those groups of people but their interest will start to wane when they are being talked at instead of talked to. Having a smaller audience that matches your target market exactly will increase your chances of turning prospects into customers and strengthening your image as a trustworthy business.

Evaluate the impact
Look at the stats that matter to evaluate the impact of your social media activity. It might be sales, opportunities, leads generated or attendees at an event. Look at which of the social media sites are most effective, how much people are talking about you and whether that feedback is positive or negative. All the information you gather will help you to streamline your social media strategy to make it more effective.

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