by, Lesa Seibert, President, Xstreme Media
Social media and social networking sites are the Web's hottest trends. What is changing, is how social networks are being used by businesses and how social media is affecting branding and consumer interaction. The web has opened up a pipeline to consumers and any size business can take advantage of this opportunity. May businesses have seed wild success utilizing social media and others have failed miserably. Now is the time to get involved, if you're not already. If you are already involved, now is the time to build a social media strategy.
In our Listen First, Act Later article last Friday, we looked at how you need to listen to consumers to determine what information they want you to provide them.
This week, we are going to discuss ho to define your objective.
A more complex goal, such as building brand loyalty, requires more thought and work. In this case, it is not enough to just lead people to your website, but you must create a positive brand experience when they get there. That might mean educating consumers on different topics, providing useful links to resources, asking for feedback about your company, providing coupons and discounts codes, etc. Because Social Media is "viral", make sure you are prepared to handle the exposure and volume of business in case something does catch on. As an example, be prepared to give out lots of discounts if you promote a coupon that spreads throughout a network.
For any goal, you must make sure to define when success has been achieved or know when it has not. Whether you are selling a products, increasing traffic, etc., it is very important to know when to move on to another project. Social Media users will not tolerate repeated attempts to get their attention about the same topic. If something is not generating the results you want, you must know when it is time to move on.
In next weeks column, we will discuss how to build and audience.
Social media and social networking sites are the Web's hottest trends. What is changing, is how social networks are being used by businesses and how social media is affecting branding and consumer interaction. The web has opened up a pipeline to consumers and any size business can take advantage of this opportunity. May businesses have seed wild success utilizing social media and others have failed miserably. Now is the time to get involved, if you're not already. If you are already involved, now is the time to build a social media strategy.
In our Listen First, Act Later article last Friday, we looked at how you need to listen to consumers to determine what information they want you to provide them.
This week, we are going to discuss ho to define your objective.
Defining Your Objective
So what exactly do you wan to accomplish by using social media? Is it increasing traffic to your website, increasing product sales, increasing attendees at events? In these cases, it then makes sense to post links to different pages of your website or blog and ask people to share the content with their friends.A more complex goal, such as building brand loyalty, requires more thought and work. In this case, it is not enough to just lead people to your website, but you must create a positive brand experience when they get there. That might mean educating consumers on different topics, providing useful links to resources, asking for feedback about your company, providing coupons and discounts codes, etc. Because Social Media is "viral", make sure you are prepared to handle the exposure and volume of business in case something does catch on. As an example, be prepared to give out lots of discounts if you promote a coupon that spreads throughout a network.
For any goal, you must make sure to define when success has been achieved or know when it has not. Whether you are selling a products, increasing traffic, etc., it is very important to know when to move on to another project. Social Media users will not tolerate repeated attempts to get their attention about the same topic. If something is not generating the results you want, you must know when it is time to move on.
In next weeks column, we will discuss how to build and audience.
