Having spent the last 20 years of my career working with leading edge enterprise and internet software I suppose I shouldn’t be too surprised at how people react to and dismiss what at times can appear to be to them as an overhyped fad or a technology looking for a purpose.
In my new role of running my own business providing services that include social media skills for small to medium sized businesses, it’s interesting to see entrepreneurs reaction to social media as an element of their marketing plan.
Initial negative reactions can range along the lines of ‘I leave all that stuff to the kids to play with’ through to an almost barked reaction of ‘my clients don’t use twitter so all this is useless to me’
My starting point is always the same. Forget about the social media technologies for a moment. They are just conversation enablers. What needs to be addressed up front by businesses looking to evaluate social media (because it might not be relevant for every business) is an understanding of the organisation’s business goals and how that translates into customer interactions.
I say customer interactions because there are many potential uses of the various forms of social media. It’s not just about prospecting for new clients in the traditional marketing sense. Social media can help with customer service initiatives, branding, thought leadership and even employee development, loyalty and morale.
So we look at business goals, the existing marketing plan and evaluate their customers and where they might interact across the spectrum of social media formats. And guess what ? We talk to their clients for this insight too.
We listen to what is being said on the web too about the company we work with. Listening to what is said about their competitors too can be useful as well.
A plan using SMART goals is devised and we embark on the journey where what matters most, and one that we focus on continually is whether the plan hits the business goals and objectives thereby adding value to the business.
