Yes, more and more businesses and individuals are involved with social media every single day. Sometimes, they get it right and other times they are way off base.
As Fiona Severson writes for Business 2 Community: “With active users nearing 700 million on Facebook, exceeding 300 million on Google+, and hitting 200 million on Twitter at the start of 2013, there’s no denying that social media use is only trending in one direction. Social media marketing provides a direct link to followers of a brand and prospective customers, but is not inherently a business-transaction medium. Social networking sites still need to be used in the way their name implies: for interacting with others in order to build relationships and form communities.”
Here are some dos and don’ts from Severson:
DO
- “Create a presence by posting regular updates on what’s happening in your biz.”
- “Work consciously to build your brand’s personality in line with your company values, and then let it loose on the Internet.”
- “Share a variety of content: post pictures and videos, share interesting links, and find out what others have to say about them.”
- “Be a thought-leader in changes taking place in your field.”
- “Encourage others to interact with you by interacting with them first.”
DON’T
- “Be a show-off. Businesses need to mind how much they self-promote their own babies.”
- “Turn off readers by making extreme statements about where you stand personally on a topic – unless that’s your business model.”
- “Ignore people who take the time to interact with you.”
- “Be insensitive to the varying perspectives of visitors to your page. Explain your reasoning, cite your sources, and tailor your rhetoric to the individuals you interact with.”
- “Be repetitive.”
While it is very important with today’s technology to market online, or through other forms of social media, we have to be sure not to overstep our boundaries. Of course, social media is a great form of communication for business, but too much of it can actually harm a company’s reputation. It is perfect to attain followers and acquire business through the internet, but we do not want to step on anyone’s toes, or force anyone to follow us. People will do what they think is right for them, and through social media, we can lead them down the right path.
I recently worked in a small town local business that was trying to get into social media marketing. They learned that in order to be successful with it, you always have to be posting or tweeting. But like the article said you have to find a balance between showing off and keeping customers up o date. They tried a lot of different things, like posting on facebook a few times a day. But that was too much and people began to get annoyed. So instead they decided to post once a day differing between things in their business, what was going on around town, and articles about their products. So social media marketing is definitely a good thing to add to you marketing plan but as long as you find that balance.
Interesting comment!
There are utilities out there that will post the same message across several social networks. The danger in this, with the level of integration, is how easy it is to accidentally repost. It’s important for companies to not just have social media, but to really have someone behind the wheel that understands the mechanics.
I have also had the experience in assisting a small, family run business in setting up a social media account. I set up a Facebook account for my boss’s bakery. Rather than going through the process of creating a whole website from scratch, creating a Facebook account to showcase their products was easy and effective. Having the ability to post pictures of their products on a social media newsfeed was great advertising. The owners even went further to offer coupon contests on their page, to get their customers more involved in checking in on the bakery’s account. The bakery has received great feedback from users, and they make sure to thank everyone who reaches out to compliment their products. By successfully utilizing Facebook, this bakery has heightened its reputation and increased its consumer base. I believe this article is very useful for businesses that are currently misusing social media and for those who are looking to enter the scene.
There is no denying the growing importance of social media. Though personally not a fan, the ability for a company to expand and publicize their businesses has increasingly become easier with the online tools now available. I agree with the dos and don’ts of this article. There is always a balance that a company must find in order to use social media to their advantage. Too many nonsense posts will cause consumers to lose interest while too few and far between will leave your business off the radar. It is important for companies to learn that happy medium and consistently follow through on their marketing plan.
Definitely social media keeps expanding globally very rapidly. I think social media it’s a great way for advertising. There are so many ways to do this. You can create a group page for your business, you could host an event and send an invitation to all your friends, you can make posts about your business or you can actually put up a paid ad that will appear on other people’s page as long as they have some sort of interest in your type of business. This article provides great tips of dos and don’ts that will come in very handy for sure! I like that in social media you can also share photos, videos and make posts with general questions that might motivate your consumer to write you a note and express you their thoughts. People love feeling that the company cares about them and what they think.
The dos and don’ts here basically implied that social networks are becoming more business oriented and that people really ought to use sites like facebook/twitter to present themselves as leaders rather than being the ordinary immature crybaby or even that person who posts “I’m bored” as a status. (This was more geared towards individuals rather than businesses)
Because social media is becoming a huge marketing and public relations tool, I thought this article was very on point with each do and don’t. I especially liked the second ‘do’, “Work consciously to build your brand’s personality in line with your company values, and then let it loose on the Internet.” Social media, especially platforms like Twitter and Facebook, should be used to reflect the company’s or organization’s image or “personality.” Users are drawn to the “personability” aspect of organizations and they can really use social media to present their image and values directly.
More time is spent on social media to the point that many workplaces are using facebook as a communication tool. It is important to achieve a certain balance over these social media networks. You cannot be too pushy or sales driven, you need to maintain brand continuity and awareness, but in a light and engaging manner. No one will respond well to a “look how good we are buy from us” post. I agree with Jennifer that Facebook is a great medium to be engaging through pictures and even videos. It’s a way of showcasing your business, without being too showy because facebook expectations include photo sharing. Promotions and contests are always great because they usually require comments, likes, or some type of engagement. This then increases awareness of your business as well.