How should my business use social media?

I recently responded to a broad question “how should businesses use social media” in a forum and thought it was worthwhile to repost my brief response here.

As a digital marketing consultant for many business types, I’ve seen a lot of attempts at incorporating social media into the marketing mix.

A common pitfall of “using social media” is that it is “free” and therefore non-specific tactics like “being on facebook” or “having a twitter account” become widespread.

I equate this to having a booth at a conference, but no one staffing it.

In order to effectively “use” social media, businesses need to start with two things, in my experience:

• resources to engage with others (most of this time this isn’t your VP of Marketing, who doesn’t have the time to get fully engaged with consumers)
• a plan for how to engage with the right people and be relevant to them, while focusing on an underlying business goal.

While this isn’t the only “use of social media”, many companies like RackSpace, a top web host provider, use platforms like Twitter to field customer questions that are both directly asked of them, as well as those taking place without them by using search tools. This level of pro-active customer service (Fanatical Support, as they call it) makes people feel like the company really cares (loyalty) and also nips negativity in the bud (reputation management).

LIKE means SHARE for Facebook users

We’ve all seen it, the Facebook SHARE and LIKE buttons on blog posts, videos and other content throughout the web. Until now, LIKE meant a small story posted on your newsfeed and Facebook could get an idea of how important that content is. 

It seems that Facebook has released an update that changes the LIKE button’s functionality also SHARE the content. Now, after clicking the LIKE button, a full story with a headline, text snippet and thumbnail will be posted to your profile wall and into your friends news feed. You’ll also be given an option to comment on the story link.

I would imagine that Facebook users may not be so whimsical with their LIKEs, given that it will appear on their walls and in their friends’ news feeds, but for publishers with compelling content online, they should get a boost in traffic.

My prediction - forced LIKEs will anger the friends of non-discriminating Facebook users almost as much as Farmville updates. 

How to get lots of followers on Twitter

Almost daily, someone asks me how to get lots of followers on Twitter. In an effort to have a quick response on hand, I’ve jotted down the things that you need to know in order to grow your follower base on Twitter.

Participate
You have to talk to people to really connect with them, it’s that simple. Just like any “earned media” channel, if you don’t put in the time, you won’t see results. Set aside some time each day to find relevant people to engage, follow and re-tweet.

Be Relevant
Decide what you are going to tweet about and stick to it. This doesn’t mean that you have to pigeon hole yourself into an granular topic, but know that someone that is into photography may not care about the latest online marketing buzz. (hence, why I maintain multiple handles @wilfernandez for my photography and @wfernandez for my web marketing consultancy)

Reciprocity
Follow and be followed, re-tweet and be re-tweeted, list and get listed.  Just focusing on outbound tweeting won’t get you followers (unless you’re a celebrity), since a small amount of Twitter users actually use Twitter search, which would be the only real way to discover your tweets. You’ll notice that a certain number of the people that you follow, re-tweet and list will find you relevant/interesting and follow you back.

List Liberally
To expand on the topic of reciprocity, adding people to one of your lists shows them that you really care about what they have to say. If you want to get someone’s attention, add them to a list that is filled with similar people.  The  rate at which these people follow you back will be much higher than getting their attention through follows or re-tweets.

Don’t Sell
Twitter is a place to build relationships and share information - if you focus on being relevant and adding value, people will click your links and look at the things that you have to offer. Just like offline sales, focus on making a connection first - if people like you, they will dig deeper into what you have to offer.

Catholic bishop drops some Social Media knowledge

Louisiana Bishop Ronald Herzog spoke at the US Conference of Catholic Bishops this week, telling his colleagues that the Catholic Church needs to climb aboard the social-media bandwagon.

Social media isn’t a fad, said Bishop Herzog, and priests need to start blogging and tweeting if they want to stay relevant. “If not, the church may be facing as great a challenge as that of the Protestant Reformation,” Herzog warned.

For starters, he said the church must be a voice in this frontier especially when “anyone can create a blog (and) everyone’s opinion is valid.” He said once a question or contradiction is posted in a blog, tweet or Facebook status, viewers “expect a response and something resembling a conversation.”

We can choose not to enter into that cultural mindset, but we do so at great peril to the church’s credibility and approachability,” he said. The bishop said young people in particular often use social media as their first point of reference in obtaining everything from news of the world to updates on their friend.

“The implications of that for a church which is struggling to get those same young people to enter our churches on Sunday are staggering,” he said. Or put another way: “If the church is not on their mobile device, it doesn’t exist.” The bishop also noted that even with staggering numbers of those who use new media, the church should not abandon what he termed “legacy communication outlets,” stressing that many people still rely on newspapers, radio, television and books for information.