Social Media Is Changing How We Do Business... Are You Ready?

It’s not unheard of for an SME business owner when asked who manages their social media to reply, “One of the team”. Often, that management of social sites is secondary to the role the team member was hired for e.g. sales or customer service.

When the company is larger with a bigger customer base the thinking is generally different. The company may have an IT department, Marketing department and someone tasked specifically to manage social sites. While the larger company appears to take social media more seriously by dedicating resources to it, it may not be enough.

Lack of Cohesion

This was the case with a company I worked with recently. Having done my research before meeting them, I could see they had a huge campaign going on with daily winners winning substantial prizes. Each day the names of winners were uploaded onto the company website but nothing was mentioned on their social sites, and given they had over 40,000 Fans on their Facebook page, who could have been doing a lot of talking and sharing about those winners, it seemed like a missed opportunity. When I asked about it I was told “I’m not given that information”. Sitting in a room with key members from management, IT, Marketing and their social site manager it was clear a lack of cohesiveness existed between departments.

Fluffy Stuff

Now that’s not unheard of. We know about love/hate relationships in many organisations between technology and marketing departments but one without the other and a company is unlikely to survive. With the recent arrival of social media into the business mix it’s rocked the boat a bit. You’ll find marketing people who think social media sits under IT while IT folks view it as the fluffy stuff with nothing whatsoever to do with them. It’s this lack of cohesiveness that can have a Social Media Manager going it alone as was the case with the company I was doing the consulting with.

Integrate to Success

In the case of the company I recently worked with, the Social Media manager was never invited to marketing meetings, so there was little collaboration on how to promote campaigns using traditional methods as well as Social Media. It meant the marketing department didn’t view their online community of over 40,000+ people as their primary target audience. Make sense? No, it doesn’t and it took sitting in a room with all the relevant people there for this otherwise very forward thinking company to see that. Like many other companies they hadn’t fully grasped the power of integrating social media into their overall marketing goals. By the end of our session together there was a complete turnaround in their thinking.

The Age of the Customer

If the goal is to be successful in what is now becoming known as ‘The Age of the Customer’, businesses need to adapt and the starting point is seeing technology, marketing and social media as deeply entwined.

5 Social Media Tactics to Increase ROI

Social can be one of the most challenging platforms for brands to measure return on investment. Companies that grew up on traditional advertising and metrics often have trouble making sense of the value of the online ecosystem. But with 52% of U.S. consumers using the web as their primary purchase tool, it's an area brands can't afford to ignore.

Last week the commenting and social curation platform Livefyre hosted an evening chat with a handful of influential analysts, marketers and publishers, sharing thoughts on need-to-know ROI growth tools. It's a formula Forrester Senior Analyst Kim Celestre calls "social depth," a fancy phrase for discovering, exploring and engaging with online consumers, eventually leading those conversations back to brands' websites.

Here's the social depth formula broken down into five, easy tips.
1. Engage

User-generated content, blog posts, videos, tweets and chatter are all over the web. Harnessing the power of brand advocates, addressing customer concerns and fixing problems empowers participation. It's easier to put out a fire than it is to ignore it.

People want to interact and create relationships with brands online. Catering to those fans via product giveaways, social interaction and real replies separate the companies that get it from the ones still in the dark.

"The consumer is boss, so we have to match that," explains Andrew Backs, P&G's manager for global business development. "Look for solutions to unlock the consumer voice."
2. Be Authentic

You can't fake it online, says Sid Shuman, who runs social media for Sony Playstation. "They can smell that a mile away."

The same die-hard brand advocates championing your product will be the first to call out shady behavior or content that doesn't reflect brand culture. When in doubt, ask your community for help when it comes to content. Shuman suggests crowdsourcing content for in-house interview and articles. Because they live and breathe the brand, fans "come up with better questions that we could any day," he says.
3. Keep Content Premium

Hitting "publish" is social suicide if the material isn't quality. Take advantage of Wordpress,Tumblr and social media to craft strong messages. Know the rules and follow them: Every network requires a specific approach and language (tweets are written differently than Facebookposts).

Stick to a calendar for posting, and focus on making followers feel part of the brand's family. Using platforms solely as selling tools quickly alienates customers. Hire professionals—and fight the urge to turn sites into content farms or automate feeds.

Peter Yared, CBS Interactive's CTO/CIO suggests using your sites to curate and amplify positive content about your company. "Find the interesting content that’s being posted and use it to bring value to your audience."
4. Integrate Real-Time Apps

Incorporate social into every aspect of what you do, says Jordan Kretchmer, Livefyre's founder and chief executive. Kretchmer's company reports 88% of businesses using Twitter feeds, comments, ratings and reviews on homepages increases user engagement. Forty-two percent boosted their average time on site.

It may sound painfully simple, but adding these tools are the equivalent of a restaurant showing off a top health code letter grade. It empowers consumers to interact and share content. Plus, constant updating improves search engine visibility much more than static pages.
5. Experiment

Nothing risked is nothing gained, especially when it comes to social. Fail and see what works. Test tone, style and new monetizing tools, such as native advertising, which serves sponsored content, tweets and Facebook stories. eMarketer reports 73% of U.S publishers now offer some form of native advertising. But be careful: This hot topic still often fails to hook users, as do most click-bait attempts.

Did we miss something? Engage with us and share your tips in the comments below.