Wednesday, July 20, 2011

How To Toolbox

How to use social media

Fast out of the box

Few things have impacted the business world — and society — as has social media.

Social media sites have overtaken pornography as the No. 1 web activity. It took television 13 years to reach 50 million users. It took the Internet four years to reach that milestone. But it only took Facebook about six months to reach the 50-million mark. While in its earliest stages social media was solely a consumer-to-consumer play, today any business without a Facebook page and Twitter feed risks being cut off from the most direct access to its clients and customers possible. With that kind of potential, having a plan is vital.

“What’s the most important thing to do as a CEO who’s establishing and executing a social media strategy? Make sure your team — and especially you — have 100 percent, enthusiastic buy in,” said Kate Brodock, founder and principal at Other Side Group, a marketing and branding firm focused strongly on social media. “If you don’t, at the very least you won’t be getting everything you can out of your program and, at the most, you risk failure. It isn’t enough to say that you need to be doing social media, or that your competitors are doing it. You need to embrace it philosophically and put a check mark next to ‘important priority’ before you implement.”

Brodock’s tips for establishing and executing a social media strategy are:

• Stay away from all the shiny objects. You’re going to have a lot of temptation to load up on social media tools, and then keep adding as new ones come out ... which is every day. While social media is free, the big resource it takes up is time — blogging takes a lot longer than Facebook (but blogging has such great return). Twitter takes more time than you think it will to really get the juices going. It’s important to understand which platforms are going to help you best achieve your goals, as well as how many resources you have to devote to them, and then prioritize and take some off the list. If it means only executing one really great platform while holding off on three others, so be it. It’s not about quantity, it’s about quality.

• Spend time with your team. Expecting your team, especially the members involved in implementation and community management, to jump in feet first and “get” it isn’t the right mindset. They’re the face of your organization in the social space, and they’re dealing in a medium that’s quite nuanced and fast-paced. Making sure they understand that, as well as how their efforts, conversations and responses are connected to the overall business strategy is important in giving them the ability to take on that responsibility.

• Be willing to think creatively and on your toes. Digital media moves freely and quickly, and sometimes opportunities arise — and disappear — before you know it. Also having a team in place that can think outside the box and has the leeway to act quickly will kick your program up a notch.

• Be open to negativity or backlash and have a proactive plan in place to deal with it. Negative feedback or disgruntled followers don’t happen because of social media, but more and more they’re getting communicated there. If I had my druthers, I’d rather know when people weren’t happy so I could fix it. It’s also important to plan ahead of time for a backlash that ends up being more than just one piece of feedback. Are there certain things you can say to your community, even if you don’t yet have an answer or solution? Is there someone who can act as a company social media voice? How should you be talking to your community?