What is the #1 barrier to a successful Social Media Marketing Business Strategy?
According to a survey conducted by MarketingSherpa, lack of knowledge is the number one barrier to social media adoption. This means many organizations that try to play in the social media realm are at the risk of creating an atmosphere that can backfire on their marketing strategy if they are not knowledgeable.
You might or might not understand that starting a conversation online is important – but listening to what users are saying is not something that should be overlooked. The first thing to know is that Social media is not one of those ‘set it and forget it’ strategies. You need to monitor, listen to, and participate in what users are saying about your brand, product or service. There is a self defense aspect to Social Media if you start things or not.
The challenge for most organizations is finding the time to respond to threads, comments, and tweets. The more social networks you are on, the more resources are required for tracking the activity in those channels. A lot of organizations fear opening a channel of conversation also calls for opening a can of worms for users to post their frustrations, complaints, and bad experiences. Sometimes, but that is going on if you are participating or not.
What most organizations fail to realize is if they do not start the conversation on a positive note in the first place, where they do have control over what is being said, that is not going to stop anyone from creating that Facebook Group, or YouTube Channel, or blog that focuses on the negative experience with your brand.
For example, there are many Social Media pages, like in Facebook, that are dedicated to users who hate Microsoft. There are over 50,000 websites, 5500 blogs, 200 Facebook groups, 500 videos online, and dozens of tweets on Twitter hourly that have some reference to ‘Microsoft Sucks’. In the case of Microsoft, they have a large enough installed base of more or less satisfied clients who are tolerant to the nuances of Microsoft products so Microsoft can survive such banter. Even so, Microsoft watches this dialogue carefully and conducts counter measures.
Most small to medium sized businesses do not have to worry at such a large scale about brand protection, but remember even 1 website, 1 video, 1 Facebook page or 1 tweet can be enough to do some serious brand damage for a small business. By proactively participating in and monitoring Social Media channels even small businesses can protect their reputation and build brand loyalty.
The key is finding the right Social Media mix – tro get started, find out where your customers hang out online. Social Media might be the question that is being discussed at meetings in your organization, but it is not always the answer. You need to look at what the objective of the campaign is, what you consider a success, and then determine if Social Media is a mechanism that is going to help fulfill that plan.
Social Media should not be a replacement for a marketing strategy you are implementing, but should be part of the mix of activities you are executing.
- Your Internet Marketing System including a website
- Pay Per Click
- Email Marketing
- Banner Ads
- Social Media
- Search Engine Optimization
Forward thinking, contemporary companies have already started and feel that Social Media is an important aspect to their business strategy. So whether it is a large portion or small percentage of your overall campaign, success comes with testing, measuring and analyzing results.
Conclusion -
So where do businesses start? Should they create a page on LinkedIn or MySpace? Should they start a blog or start a Twitter campaign? To answer these questions, it is important to understand that different social networks attract different types of people – so you need to match the users of your product and service to the network your target audience is most likely to engage in.
For example, if you are selling consumer goods, Facebook might be the better area to start promoting opposed to LinkedIn, which is a more B2B environment. We can consult and help put the pieces of the Social Media puzzle together and recommend a plan that is right for your business. Social Media can be fun, drive a lot of targeted traffic, increase visibility, and generate more business, but without the knowledge and experience of executing the campaign, your social strategy is going to turn, well… very unsocial.
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Tags: Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Social Networking, social networks
