What Can Social Media Do For Your Business?

Posted on | December 22, 2009 | No Comments

The strategic value of social media to organizations is fairly well understood today. As with more traditional marketing tools, the value is in the ability to reach and persuade an audience to buy your goods, support your cause, or just help you get famous. But what are the specific tactical advantages of using various social media platforms? I’ll provide a brief summary here of some of the most popular tools and their content.

Blogs

The blog is often the essential tool of any social media campaign. You can use it to provide authoritative information, announce new things happening with your organization and link to things you’re doing elsewhere on the web. The blog is where you provide the authentic “voice” — or voices — of your organization.

As the most-frequently updated part of a website with fresh content, a blog is typically easier to find on Google than static web pages. It also is ready-made for facilitating discussion with your audience through a comments section, allowing your organization to obtain instant feedback from your fans, provide extra information and (as sometimes necessary) issue timely clarifications and corrections. There are many other benefits, but for now, suffice to say that the blog is the work-horse of many social media campaigns.

Twitter

Free instant messaging in 140 characters or less to your closest friends, whether you number them on one hand or in the hundreds of thousands. The PR benefits are obvious. One extremely important thing to remember about using Twitter for your organization is that you are often using it to connect with influencers who will spread your message to other channels.

Experienced Twitter users for organizations will often use their profiles as link-back machines to automatically promote content on their own websites, especially their blog content. In that case, think of the website as home-base, with your Twitter account inviting people back to your site to see what’s going on.

Facebook Fan Pages

Facebook Fan Pages are often set up as bulletin boards merely syndicating content from the main website. Actually, there can be value in this if updated regularly, since Google likes Facebook. If your website is having trouble competing in its niche to get on page one of searches, your fan page may be easier to find. That said, a more ambitious use of these platforms is to host contests, allow fans to post content that you might not want on the main site, or offer something special to your customers or supporters.

As with Twitter, a Facebook Fan Page will typically represent another spoke linking back to your hub, the main website.

YouTube Videos

YouTube is the most famous video-sharing site in North America. There are competitors, but if the point is for your video to reach as many eyeballs as possible, it makes sense to at least post one version of your video on YouTube. Use it to create educational clips, show interviews and demonstrate whatever it is your organization does. The medium is great for announcements, tutorials, advertisements — whatever you want to do.

Keep in mind that text is still king on the Internet, even when you’re working with video. With good descriptions and tags, more people will actually see your video.

Which Social Media Tools Should I Use for My Business?
As usual, I would remind my readers that social media is not the be-all and end-all of marketing tools. Direct-mail marketing, sign-boards, brochures and other “traditional” marketing tools also have their place.

First, figure out your target demographic. Next, focus on what it is you’re selling (whether that’s widgets, services or a charitable cause). Define your campaign. After that, you can start looking at the tools in your toolbox.

Be A Social Media Punk