The Social Medium

How does your company use the social medium? There are many tools in the arsenal.

There’s the social aspect of staying in touch and sharing information with colleagues and customers. “Friends” are likely people you already know and with whom you have some existing relationship. How likely are you to “friend’ a stranger? What about a shoe or a store? (Maybe; if you were a loyal customer.) A PR agency principal recently told me the majority of B2B Facebook pages have less than 100 friends. Companies that try to find new customers these ways typically fail. I believe this tactic is best suited to maintaining relationships and customer retention.

Social media is not all about a two-way dialogue. I have a client with an anti-Twitter corporate policy. While only a small fraction of their customers are dissatisfied, it’s vocal minority; engaging with them on Twitter seems to just elevate a negative conversation. We developed a social media strategy to cultivate brand awareness and find new customers through targeted content.

Social Media can be used as a powerful broadcast medium for branding and customer acquisition. Videos and applications can have a long shelf-life once underway. It’s about developing highly relevant content and getting it into the hands of your audience and key influencers.

There are different social media channels and tactics which will work better for some business than others. For some companies, lots of business is conducted through Twitter. For others? Well, you can have a successful social media strategy- without a tweet! Success depends on your objectives, resources and priorities. Do you need to manage customer relationships? Or is brand awareness the priority?

Agencies are jumping on the social media bandwagon. I’ve met very interesting ones. There are firms that create Facebook pages, manage Twitter and customer dialogue; agencies that specialize in developing viral branded content (such as videos, games and applications); others focus on distribution. Expertise varies. Be clear on your objectives before engaging in any initiative.