Why Businesses Shalt Not Ignore Twitter and Social Media.
Posted by Jody Raines
To tweet or not to tweet? What is the value?
Social Media marketing is gaining in popularity and acc
eptance. Rather than spend $20 million on a Superbowl ad, Pepsi decided to spend those funds on a a Social Media campaign. Ford motor company has increased their digital advertising expenditure from 15% to 25%. Savvy businesses recognize that there is a conversation taking place. And if they are not participating in that conversation, they are losing the battle and the war for their customer.
As a new technology and social media tool, there has been great attention focused on Twitter as well as other Social Media platforms. The question “why should I use this?” and “how should I use this” are questions that many business owners ask themselves.
Recently while meeting with one of my cients, a successful distributor of manufacturing products, we wound up in a discussion about Social Media.
"Who needs that?", he asked, "I don't have time to waste on following or friending or whatever you call it! I have a business to run."
So, like any good Internet Marketing Consultant would do, I gave him the reasons I feel Social Media would help him stay on top of his business. Here's just a few:
1. The "Instant" Social Media platforms - Twitter, FriendFeed, GoogleBuzz, are now becoming more and more important. They are utilized by Journalists to monitor the news. A stray comment by a disenfranchised employee, picked up by a keyword search can tip off a company on the verge of layoffs or a company potentially facing some other business milestone, like a merger or acquisition. Keeping an ear to the ground or a finger on the pulse of your industry may not be a bad thing. In fact, my client's company had equipment that had been shipped and not yet paid for when the client who ordered the equipment went Chapter 11 just as the equipment was being delivered. A little tweet of knowledge would have saved his company a lot of money.
2. The "Bookmarking" Social Media platforms - Digg, Delicious, Stumbleupon are excellent methods to be found - especially if you publish content that helps within the industry. Particularly for a technical manufacturing environment, a comparative report would generate a few bookmarks.
3. The "Community" Social Media platforms - Facebook, MySpace, Xanga are growing in members over the age of 35. In fact, this older group is the fastest growing audience. The interesting statistics tell us that these communities command great loyalty - participants typically spend over 20 minutes and 50% utilize them very other day. That's a lot of time spent by potential prospects. Although most personal pages are private and therefore not searched by Google or Bing or the Search engines, the Business Pages are searchable and help to increase the liklihood that your company will come up in search engines when terms related to your product or service are searched.
4. The "Professional" Social Media platforms - LinkedIn, Plaxo, Zoom can help define the credibility of your company. Your business relationships can be shared with others, and old work related friendships re-ignited. The neat thing about catching up with people you used to work with is that they've likely moved to another company within the same industry. So you now have connections and contacts that cover the gamit of companies that you need to do business with.
So while it may not be immediately apparent how to use Social Media or why to use Social Media, bottom line to ignore it may be a critical mistake for your business.
WebMarCom is an Internet strategy and Web Marketing Communications Agency based in South Jersey and Philadelphia.