Social Media – Why Use It For Your Business?

If you are already using social media for your business, the answer to “Why use it?” may be obvious. But if are still unclear of its merits, or you aren’t using social media yet, then this brief introduction will be useful.

“Social media” is a collection of services including social networking services such as Facebook and Twitter. Each service is best suited to specific situations.

As a business, you can set up an account with any of these services that are relevant. This can be for your company, a specific brand, or yourself as an individual. People can then link to the account from their own account, such as by clicking a “Follow” or “Like” button.  You can then:

1. Broadcast to these people, including text, photos, videos and links to blogs or web sites
2. Get feedback and questions from these people, and enter into conversations
3. In some cases allow discussions between these people. This can be positive or negative, so the latter needs to be handled carefully

The main uses are therefore for:

1. Marketing, such as news announcements and special offers
2. Interacting with influencers and other people who you can help or can help you
3. Customer service, including answering questions
4. Technical support, such as for software
5. Public service announcements

This can be for Business to Consumer (B2C) or Business to Consumer (B2B), depending on the service used

There are also services for specific purposes, such as to issue electronic discount coupons and based around location, which are becoming increasingly popular.

As with many things, a key reason to use social media is to get ahead of your competitors, or not to be left behind. However using it poorly can be detrimental to your business, and it's worth having clear objectives of what you are trying to achieve. There’s a number of practical do’s and don’ts.

Bear in mind that these services are public. They don’t replace the need for private communication mechanisms through your website, such as for complaints.

Taking a look at the main services:

Facebook

You set up an account using “Pages”, which people can “Like”. For them your site becomes similar to one of their friends.

You can set whether you will allow people to add comments, photos, videos and/or links on your “wall”. If you do , then you can hold a conversation just with that person, or a discussion involving potentially many people.

As Facebook tends to be used in a personal capacity, this service is best for B2C and of limited use for B2B.

Twitter

By setting up an account people can “follow” the tweets that you send. They can also send you tweets, which you can choose to reply to or not.

Tweets are only 140 characters. But they can contain links to web sites, which is also the basis for communicating photos, videos and longer pieces of text.

Twitter can be used for both B2C and B2B.

MySpace

In 2006 this was the leading social networking service worldwide, but has since been eclipsed by Facebook. MySpace has recently announced that they will become a media hub for music, TV and video. They now link to Facebook for social networking.

MySpace is therefore of limited business interest. However for businesses in entertainment, especially musical acts, it is still a useful place to have an account.

YouTube

By posting a video onto YouTube:
•    People can comment on the video
•    You can link to the video from your web site, tweets, etc
•    You can embed the video into a web page on your main site


There are many other systems, so this article has only been a quick introduction to the uses of social media. If you would like to discuss further, do contact me.