The first step into social media
The other day I gave a talk in Aalborg to 200 small and medium sized businesses about marketing and social media. It was a great experience, and I got a lot of very positive feedback from the audience.
I also got some great questions. One of the most interesting ones was: How do I know which social media services to use for my business, and which not to waste time nor money on?
It’s a tricky one that can be answered in a number of ways. But my take on it was this: Don’t start out be choosing an approach and following that blindly. Start out by finding out, where your customers are on existing services, what they say and in particular what they say about your product or company? What’s the arguments? What’s the tone of voice? Which impression do these people give you?
Once you have gotten to know them through their existing behavior, I’m willing to bet that the answer to the question about which social media sites and services to use will seem a lot more clear and evident.
Vad NU! is a consultancy company owned by Mads Kristensen and specialized in helping clients take advantage of the business opportunities created by new media. Click to learn how I can help you and your company.
1 comment
I totally agree - I had the same question the other day, introducing press officers in an organisation to social media.
And my best answer was: As in any other decision about choosing ways of communication you have to decide:
1) What do I want to communicate
2) Who do I want to get in touch with
3) What kind of relationship do I want to build
I said that I wouldn’t sell them the concept of : try it all out and wait.
Instead an organisation must decide if it’s up to it; do it want to use the resources to engage in a conversation with the public - that is: answer people and actually follow some of their advises presented via Social media.
then the organisation - I think - must find out if their use of specific social media-tools will ad value to the people, they want to talk with.
I.e. don’t introduce blogging if you’re not going to use it yourself for more then autofeed pr-releases into the blog and never answer comments .
Social media is not a magic spell to solve problems about communication. It’s hard work - but if done properly; fun work too.
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