Archive for the ‘How Businesses Use Social Media’ Category
Just like a business plan or a marketing plan, businesses that use Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, blogs and other social media resources need to develop a social media plan. That plan should include what resources you will use, what value you will create with them, and how you will grow your following.
Determine What Resources Are Of Value
Different resources attract different participants. While Facebook will be interacting with an individual often sitting at a PC, individuals using Foresquare are normally on the road with a mobile device. Some users will use only one means, but many will use both. And while a business needs to tweak for each resource, it needs to keep it’s general message consistent.
Create Service And Value
Too many businesses want to just post something on their social media resources and then leave it alone. That’s the wrong approach. Businesses need act. They need to do something that will benefit the persons they are corresponding with. Anything from a tutorial on how to use a product to a request for the completion of a survey can get social media participants to act. And when they act, you know you have created value for them.
Interaction With Customers Requires Authority
In many cases when you hire someone to interact with a customer you need to grant them authority. This is especially the case in social media. Social media often entails one to one contact between your representative and your customer. That representative needs to have some authority to make decisions that will be representative of the company. This increases the value of your social media site to your customer.
Grow Your Following
In most cases businesses are out to increase their customers. Social media can enhance this effort by growing a business’s connections. To do this a firm must make use of it’s current connections to gain new ones. One way to do this is to create content that goes viral. Do or create something that your current following will tell others about.
Change Your Plan
Just like your business plan, your social media plan should always be changing. Competition, market conditions, and many other factors that are regularly changing influence the company mission. And when that mission changes, so do the plans.
Foursquare is a social media tool that seems to be gaining popularity. Starbucks Coffee is a company that is embracing social media like no one else. So Starbucks recently used Foursquare in a promotional event.
What’s A Foursquare Mayor?
In case you are not familiar with Foursquare, let me tell you about how a portion of it works. Once you’ve joined Foursquare, and you have it on your smart phone, you are able to tell Foursquare where you are. For instance, if you go to a Starbucks Coffee in Charlotte, NC, you are able to pull out your mobile device and tell Foursquare you are there. If you want to, you “check in” at that location on Foursquare and you can make a comment for your Foursquare friends to see. Every time you go, you check in with Foursquare and Foursquare keeps up with how many times you’ve been there. The person that visits a business or place the most ofter becomes the “Mayor” of that location.
Rewarding The Mayor
In the middle of May, 2010, Starbucks offed a $1 discount on Frappuccino to the Mayors of each store. It sent this message to those Mayors: “As mayor of this store, enjoy $1 off a NEW however-you-want-it Frappuccino blended beverage. Any size, any flavor. Offer valid until 6/28.”
Campaign Glitch
Once they got into the campaign they ran into a little problem. Some of the people who had become Mayor’s of the store locations were store employees. Of course, they were there more often than customers. And if they participated in Foursquare, then they would, naturally, be the store Mayors.
Starbucks had to send this letter to several people who complained:
Thank you so much for taking the time to write to us.I am truly sorry to hear about your frustration with foursquare Promotions.
I want you to know that we take feedback from our loyal customers seriously. Because you know better than anyone else what you want from Starbucks, I will share this with the ————- store Management.
However Foursquare is open to any one that can access it and it happens that the Mayor of this location is the Barista again I do apologize for any type of inconvenience that this may have caused. ….
Thanks again,
Orlando C.
Customer Relations
Starbucks Coffee Company
Great Idea, Just Needs Tweeking.
I think this is a great idea on Starbucks part. They have been a leading retailer in the use of social media. I have a lot of admiration for leaders and risk takers. Now Foursquare and Starbucks have both learned something. And, I’m willing to bet they come up with a way to solve this problem so they can do the campaign again.
Keep you eye on Foursquare. And reply to this blog when you find interesting ways businesses are using this tool.
CEO’s Don’t Have Time For Social Media
Well, that’s what many of them think. But, that philosophy can be costly. This might light a fire underneath some of them. Search for the CEO’s of your competitors in the Social Media sites. Are they doing anything? If they are, then enough said. If not, the questions becomes “When will they start?” In that case you have the opportunity to be the leader in your market.
Manage Your Time
For the effective CEO time is money, BIG money. And, like anyone, the head honcho can get caught up in Facebook, Twitter and blog responses. But like everything else in management, the CEO’s job is to get other people to do the work! While the CEO needs to create the general content of the Social Media messages, the rest can be done by employees. Editing the content and posting the message can be done by qualified personnel.
Show Your Expertise
There are two key reasons the CEO needs to participate in Social Media. First, to show a level of knowledge and expertise in the industry. Second, to bring the corporate image to a human level.
To get to the top company position in the first place, odds are the CEO knows a good bit about the industry his, or her, company is in. Customers, stockholders, and the public in general are naturally interested in advice and viewpoints offered by the CEO. Posts can entail a wide range of topics. Topics such as market changes, new products, research projects, and personnel management can all show that expertise.
Bringing the corporate image to the human level is paramount in today’s market place. One of the most classic blunders in corporate marketing was pulled off by First Union Corporation under Ed Crutchfield in the 1990′s. Their marketing campaign placed the “Big Bank” above all others. The image put such distance between them and their customers that it damaged their reputation. So much so that they dropped the company name when they merged with Wachovia.
Today’s CEO needs to appear to interact with the company’s clientele. And what better way than Social Media? A simple question asking advice from customers can go a long way. And it may even lead to a new idea.
Respond To Responses
The key component of Social Media is it’s two way communication. That doesn’t mean the CEO needs to respond to every message back. But someone needs to monitor those messages and determine what requires response and where it should come from.
Now, go get your CEO and show them this post!
Influence The Market
One of the primary purposes of social media is to get people talking. When someone offers value through information in blogs, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social media sources, people begin to follow it. And they begin to tell their friends.
Initiate The Conversations
Social Media allows you to influence what your market thinks about your business. So, use it to do just that! It enables you to initiate conversations. And when you initiate them, you establish an element of control referred to as influence. Offer service to your market by initiating the conversation. Create value through information and advice. Once you’ve established that value in the social media market, you need to lead conversations in the market in a direction that will benefit you.
Influence The Conversations
While you can’t control the conversations, you can influence them. When people visit your blog or your Facebook page, you are the primary contributor. When someone presents a question, you are able to answer. And others are able to see how you handle the situation.
The conversations are going on about you. When you initiate them, you gain credibility and influence. Use your influence and lead your audience right into your door.
Small Businesses Gain Exposure Through Their Patrons
From Mashable’s article on March 22, 2010:
“Social media can be a scary prospect for small businesses; unlike traditional marketing methods, it puts part of the message in the hands of the customers. But while it’s easy to be concerned that the message will go the wrong way, the benefits can outweigh the risks if you use the available services wisely.
The most obvious benefits are increased customer loyalty and engagement. Less obvious but just as important: Your business will gain exposure not through your own advertisements, but through folks who’ve already been patrons.”
Click here for the entire article.
Businesses are using social media to communicate more directly with people who need their product. Companies are spreading word of their goods and services to specific market segments through blogs, Facebook, Twitter and other social media tools.
Dr. Vinton G. Cerf, “The Father Of The Internet” and VP, Chief Internet Evangelist for Google shares with OgilvyOne Singapore on how brands can tap into the social media phenomenon:
Contact us at Business And Social Media and we will help you implement social media in your business.
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