Social Media and Your Business

Should Your Company Be on Social Media?

The answer: yes. Social media is a huge asset to your company – and it’s free! As of 2017, at least 81% of the U.S. population had at least one social media profile, jumping from 24% in 2008 (Edison Research, 2018). That means most of your company’s audience is already online and ready for you to interact with them.

One Platform or Many Platforms?

Most businesses should focus on one or two main social platforms. It might seem like you should focus on all platforms to cover all your basis, but that can do more harm than good. Selecting a main platform allows you to monitor and control what happens on the platform. One platform gives consumers one social touchpoint to connect with the business.

The key when working with social media is to be fast to react to posts/comments, listen to what was said, utilize that information, and respond in the brand’s voice (Hill, 2014). This task is hard enough with one platform. By adding additional platforms to your business, you are adding double the work. Each platform is managed separately in terms of content added, who is accessing the content, and who is responding. Taking on more than your business can handle by way of social media could lead to negative actions from your consumers.

According to statistics from mid-2017, 50% of consumers are likely to boycott a brand for responding poorly to complaints on social media. Just over 40% of consumers will share their feelings on a brand’s poor responses with friends both online and offline. A surprising find from the study was that consumers are more likely be upset and take negative action towards a brand when it responds poorly to a complaint rather than completely ignores the complaint (eMarketer, 2018).

(McLeod, 2017)

Selecting Your Platform

The platform your business should be on will differ depending on the type of business you do, the audience, and what your objectives are. It’s highly recommended to ask these questions of your business before jumping on a platform. There are five main platforms for businesses to gravitate to, but this list is not limited: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest. Each of these platforms have millions of consumers logging in each day, but it’s important to know who uses each platform and compare that to who your target audience is. For example, the below are recent demographics from Pinterest users. If you’re company’s target audience is men, Pinterest is not the platform for you (McLeod, 2017).

Managing Multiple Platforms

As your business grows and you want to add additional social media platforms into the mix, your social media management job becomes a bit more difficult. Instead of worrying about one platform, you’ve now got two or three or more that need to be monitored. How do other businesses do this? How and when do you jump from one platform to another? Don’t worry, there are tools to help with that!

Social media management tools are a lifesaver for the smaller business or marketing team. These tools all work in slightly different ways, but they are the same in the most important way: you can manage multiple social media accounts all in one place. A few well-known and well used examples of these tools are: Everypost, Buffer, SocialOomph, Hootsuite, and SproutSocial (Waldman, 2016). These tools allow you to log into your social accounts on the website, view your feed, post, and reply to other posts. Depending on the tool you decide on, some type of analytic tool may be available, as well.

Content vs. Conversation

Both content and conversation are essential parts of any marketing efforts. Content covers the materials that reach the consumers and the conversation is actual interaction with the consumers. It’s hard to say which is more important because it depends on the situation. Let’s take a look at both:

Content is what draws consumers to your brand. Without content, consumers would not take interest in the brand. Content gives consumers something to look forward, which is why content should be consistent. To draw consumers in, content must also be fresh and exciting for the consumer. Though the content should be different each time, it should still portray the idea of the overall message and support the company’s objective. If the content something they can view on another website or with another brand, why should they keep coming back to your brand (Greenberg, 2009)?

Conversation is what gets people to stay with the brand, especially in today’s consumer-oriented world. “Content without conversation is just broadcasting, or just advertising” is the perfect way to phrase it (Novak, 2010). Putting content out in the world is nothing without conversation to follow up, gain insight, respond to, and adjust if needed. No one wants to be talked at instead of talked to. Consumers want to feel like part of a brand, more than just a number, that their opinion matters. Social media is all about sharing information with the hope that it’ll spark a reaction from those who see it – happiness, sadness, anger, motivation, change, etc. – and start a conversation. Creating a conversation or continuing allows the consumers to feel as if they are making a difference in the brand, even if it is small (Novak, 2010). Their voice is heard. This is what keeps them coming back and supporting the brand.

Without content, consumers don’t have much to get them interested in the brand initially. There’s nothing to grab their attention. But without conversation, consumers have content and don’t feel like they are a part of the brand. Conversation gives them the opportunity to share their voice and opinions with the brand, it’s what keeps them coming back. Because of that I think conversation is more important than content. As a consumer, being involved with a company on what feels like a personal level is very important.

Ultimately though, the decision about which is more important depends on the brand’s objectives. If the objective is conversation rates or click throughs, then content is key (Greenberg, 2009), but if the objective is engagement or brand awareness then conversation is key.

References

Edison Research (2018). Percentage of U.S. population with a social media profile from 2008 to 2017. Statista. Retrieved from https://www.statista.com/statistics/273476/percentage-of-us-population-with-a-social-network-profile/

eMarketer (2018). Actions taken by internet users in the United States if a brand ignores or reacts poorly to their complaint on social media as of July 2017. Statista. Retrieved from https://www.statista.com/statistics/741388/consequences-negative-social-media-brand-interactions-usa/

Greenberg, M. (2009, October 20). Content is king of social marketing. MultichannelMerchant.com. Retrieved from http://multichannelmerchant.com/social-media/1020-content-social-marketing/

Hill, M. (2014, November 5). How to manage negative social media comments. Digital Giants. Retrieved from http://www.bedigitalgiants.com/how-to-manage-negative-social-media-comments/

McLeod, B. (2017, November 28). Which social media platforms should my business be on? Blue Corona. Retrieved from https://www.bluecorona.com/blog/which-social-media-platforms-best-for-business

Novak, C. (2010, July 27). Why conversation, not content, is king. SocialMediaToday.com. Retrieved from http://socialmediatoday.com/wordspring/152636/why-conversation-not-content-king

Waldman, K. (2016, April 18). 5 social media management tools to save time. Social Media Examiner. Retrieved from https://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/5-social-media-management-tools-to-save-time/