How Social Media Boosts Business. Case Study

Posted on | April 8, 2010 | 2 Comments

My copywriting clients often want a bit of direction as to how to syndicate their written content through social media and boost their marketing campaigns. But sometimes, particularly with new clients, the request is much more fundamental: “I keep hearing that blogs, Twitter and all this geeky mumbo jumbo is good for business. But I don’t get it. How can social media actually improve my bottom line?”

OK, let’s take one example of how businesses can benefit from social media networks just from this week. Vancouver-based Online Strategy House founder Guacira Naves was looking to spend some dollars on a new (and more reliable) web hosting company:

My client, In Order To Succeed, has been having a less-than-stellar time with their current host (HostMDS). During the better part of the last week, it has been a saga where their email service doesn’t work and the site has been down. Their current host is based on the East Coast, and their phone technical support has forgotten that clients in the PST zone may need their help from time to time. That’s why I’m not linking to their site – because it is “out of order”.

She immediately turned to her Facebook and Twitter connections to get a referral from trusted colleagues.

Over a few hours following that question, I received six replies, through Twitter, with host recommendations from individuals whose opinions I respect. A comparable scenario ensued on my Facebook profile

Guacira got a number of recommendations, but Bluehost seemed to come out on top. She called them, liked what their representative had to say and in just a few minutes, that company could chalk up a number of benefits thanks to social media:

* An additional US$83.40 in revenue.
* Numerous positive comments made about their brand on my Facebook profile. Although I only have 158 Facebook friends, many of those are key influencers in Vancouver, who have likely read the recommendations left by others.
* The enthusiastic testimonials that were left about their service on Twitter and Facebook. They not only reached me, but have been potentially read by Twitter followers and Facebook friends of those who offered feedback. This amounted to an aggregate total of 1,177 people on Twitter and 1,529 Facebook users.

And there you have it. Social media networks boost business. Want some more case studies? Head over to Get Elastic for 110 Ways Retailers are Using Social Media Marketing

Full disclosure: I use Bluehost for this website and other domains.

Of course, there is a law of diminishing returns. From addictedtobjj
I laughed at the people in this, until I realized I found this video on my Google RSS reader on my desktop computer while using my Nokia internet tablet to simultaneously Google something else, all while logged into my Google, Youtube and Facebook accounts simultaneously… boy do I feel silly right about now.

Comments

2 Responses to “How Social Media Boosts Business. Case Study”

Nathan Rodriguez
May 2nd, 2010 @ 10:43 am

i have tried social media marketing for getting our new products to be known on the market. it seems to work well specially if the audience is targeted
Audrey Phillips
May 6th, 2010 @ 5:52 pm

Copywriting is also a skill that takes years of practice to become very effective in advertising what you are selling