Do I need to be on Twitter?
Do we need to have a Facebook Fan Page?
Should the company have a LinkedIn Page, just for the firm?
These are just a few of the questions that I get every time I sit down with a company. Whether it's just the initial needs assessment, final sale meeting, kick off or SWOT Analysis meeting, I always get questions regarding Social. Things like, "...should we blog?"; “Is there anything to YouTube?”; or “What's Pinterest?”
Credit: Fred Cavazza, Creative Commons license
I generally open by mentioning that the company should have an overall strategy for Social Media Marketing. But then I usually delve into things like, “you should do all these things, but we'll help you to understand how often for each of the campaigns.” It's my firm belief that all companies should be monitoring Twitter for traffic discussing everything from the company itself, to areas of expertise, similar products and competition. The same holds true for Facebook and LinkedIn. If you don't know what your existing and potential customers are talking about, you're in the dark.
Now, this isn't all to say that organizations need to be pushing content continuously on Social platforms, but they do need to, at least, listen. In fact that is how I begin training. Individuals and companies should commence their “Social Life” by listening to what others are saying, doing, and/or accomplishing. Then initiate responses here and there. That's the easiest way to ease into it.
As far as listing all the platforms and their merits, I'm not going to do that here. There are plenty of bloggers and experts that can impart that wisdom upon you. If I sit down with you to determine if we should partner together to change your marketing direction, establish a Social Media Marketing strategy, or embark on a full branding to being found approach: we're going to decide together how to approach all the platforms. In conjunction we will learn which parts of your company will be handling push, pull and overall interaction. Members of your staff will be trained on use of their voice, how to respond, etc.
Whether you go with my company or not, guard against just hiring some kid, just because they're all over Facebook. You should have someone that understands how Social will impact your business. You need people with Marketing, PR, and/or an Internet Business development background.
Don't be scared by Social, and do not worry that you won't have the time to add things to your day. We will find ways to make this migration into Social Media Marketing as easy as possible. As long as you're following the strategy, constantly review and re-evaluate the plan, and embrace the fact that your potential customers are all over Social Media talking about things you want to sell them – you'll do just fine. Remember: Social Media is pretty much Word of Mouth Marketing. It's just done in real time, on line, and you can monitor and analyze it.
