Integrating social media is the key to success
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Our commentary: eConsultancy commentator, Matt Owen, writes "...traditional media is still huge and it"€™s concerning that some of the hype surrounding social media could eventually be doing more harm than good for businesses".
Just as some businesses are still very slow to take social media seriously, the path runs two ways and there's no advantage to ignoring traditional media. Social media is not a magic marketing pill - nothing is. So what's the story? Integration - the expanding usage and growth of one media does not mean a decline in another.
Marketing implications: It's integration, and understanding what you are using social media for. Marketers need to remember that while there is massive potential the emphasis now needs to be on integrating successfully with other marketing channels and creating a multi-channel presence rather than disparaging the effectiveness of other channels. As Owen notes: "If…
Answer:
I"€™m assuming your asking about engaging with Twitter +- Facebook +- Linked-In +- your own blog or community? Here are three dimensions for you to think about...
Be Relevant
You"€™re right that it"€™s the initial engagement which is so difficult, and this is the case for any channel. Start with your audience - what do they need? They"€™re pressed for time and likely looking for something - what purpose do they have on your web site or web service? You have to offer them something that"€™s value-add and ideally inspiring "€“ maybe something entertaining that makes them sit up and take notice, or something extremely useful that solves a problem or answers a question. So, what is it that your audience will value - research it, ask them and then deliver it in whatever format that makes the most sense. Equally, use parts of that content on other web sites where your…
It"€™s about customers
People who influence me, people like Brian Solis, Jay Baer, Seth Godin and Doc Searls suggest that social media is best suited to engaging customers, as typically it helps develop some form of emotional connection which makes it more likely customers will form a deeper relationship with a brand. It"€™s not that social media cannot help with new customer acquisition, far from it, it"€™s how you go about it.
Have a framework that informs strategic integration
There"€™s so much advice on social media tools and tactics that it"€™s sometimes difficult to see the big picture. Our new RACE framework defines a simplified, strategic approach to digital marketing, including social media within it as a key part of today"€™s marketing.
An Extra Dimension to RACE - Listen & Participate
RACE is similar in its approach to a Social CRM framework in that is can…
Social media is hot and being adopted by small and huge businesses alike - as a channel transcending the middleman and connecting brands directly with people it can only gather more momentum.
Yet, despite all the hype and potential - how much are you actually doing in social media? My guess is not very much or at least not as much as your gut tells you that you should be doing. Why?
The F Word (again)
My experience is that it"€™s primarily fear of the unknown that is preventing faster adoption because there are simply so many questions for a busy team to answer:- how much to spend, how much time to invest, which tools to use, how to resource it and how to measure success. There"€™s a lot to learn before investment can be justified to senior management and an already massive agenda of work.
Well, some help is at hand - this…
I don't have to explain to you that a big part of human communication occurs without us even knowing it. We smell and sense fear, affection, tension, pressure and even love.
We "read" body language and we have a gut feeling about the person we are communicating with. First impressions, a sense of attraction, trust or maybe disgust.
And of course there is the way we have learned to look at the world and people, ages ago. Education, culture, early experiences, you name it. We often call all these abilities and ways of interpreting the unconsciousness, "that what we cannot explain", the unreadable, allow me to call it the sixth sense.
How you call it depends from your way of looking at the world and life. Are you religious or an atheist? Are you a sociologist or marketer? Do you prefer the views on mankind of Freud, Jung, Maslow or Seth Godin (the…
Social media marketing and Online PR essentials are our weekly round-up of what's new if you're looking to apply social media and online public relations in your marketing. We select the best posts on best practice and developments from the main social media players from the many we scan each week so you don't have to.
We include updates about new services from the main forms of social presence, i.e. Facebook, Linked In and Twitter and also best practice articles advising how to develop and implement social media marketing strategies.
Do let us know any developments that you think we're missing by tweeting @SMARTinsights. Sign-up to our enewsletter if you'd like a reminder through the updates each Friday.
Our recommendations on the latest developments from week starting 30th August 2010
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The surge of interest in social media over the last two or three years has been accompanied by a surge in social media books seeking to demystify the topic - and I have had lots of requests for recommendations of the best books.
Everyone's preferences for books to help improve marketing practice differs, but I think what most look for are practical guidance and tips; tools to apply to help analyse and improve performance and a framework to bring all the tactics together to help with planning and process. Examples of companies who have successfully applied the principles are also essential and learning from failures is good too, although those aren't naturally publicised.
For social media, I think marketers also need guidance on how to use the specific types of social media presence and how they integrate with other digital media such as email marketing. A useful framework for types of social media…
Do you think the hype about social media vastly exaggerates the commercial reality of it's importance?
If you do, this post is for you - it presents one example as proof against the hype if your colleagues are asking "Why don't we have a social presence", it's also a great excuse for me to embed the best rap song ever...
The full video isn't available for Embed (thanks Universal).
Introducing the EFT ratio
One thing that social media proponents are fond of is dissing email; foretelling the death of email. But the reality is that for most brands email works fantastically well.
Sure, we need to work at increasing relevance in email by better targeting - that's right touching - but Email delivers in terms of reach…
