Social media and business - a profitable relationship?

Businesses have definitely jumped on the social media bandwagon. I heard it at a conference I went to a few weeks back and one I went to only last week. There is definitely a perception that it is vital to business success. And I probably agree, but I would say so cautiously. It is evident in online marketing today that avoiding the social media opportunities is going to minimise your chances of marketing success. However, is there actually an argument to say that over-indulging in social media, particularly with no clear focus guiding and directing it, could exponentially reduce your marketing success?

I think it is very possible, as a business, to do too much in this space. More importantly though, not only is it easy to do too much, but it is very easy to do it haphazardly. Have groups on x number of social networking site, blogs and communities on your own site, rss feeds and bookmarks, be tweeting, even your own social/business networking site ... but is there a real objective to any one activity or is it supported by a relevant need? It feels at the moment that boxes are being ticked with perhaps little or no thought about the holistic view.

It became clear to me at these conferences that social media was a huge topic (you don’t say!) and that marketing and online people were being pushed by the business to be in on the act. Equally though, it became clear that businesses did not really understand how they should be dealing with it. Everyone had a social media story to tell but I found it easy to question why these new opportunities had been tapped. Various social networks were cited and everyone thought a community of some sort would enhance their brand engagement.

I only heard one story where I truly felt that social media had been used in the exactly the right way and that was from a charity. They used their social media outlet to answer the doubts and negativity surrounding a particular subject which is close to people’s heart. In doing this they created trust for the charity and its cause. And a charity is a non-profit making organisation which tells me something about social media and business. People who engage in social media activities want to talk and be heard as well as listen to others who say something of interest and relevance to them. Businesses may want listen but there is a higher cause, sometimes underlying and not spoken of – they want to make profit from it, of course they do.

Monetisation may certainly be an option for some businesses, but I feel I can generally say that if a business thinks there is money in social media, think hard about having a good strategy to make it work for you. Don’t assume that setting up a group on Facebook will increase your revenue. Because it probably won’t if you don’t use it in the right way.

Does your community serve a useful purpose for both parties, does it drive innovation which is good for business and relevant to customers? Is your social networking profile or group talking and listening to the conversation of the people in that group, and ultimately doing something about it? Don’t say you are just using it as another click through to a sales channel. What are you saying about your brand through your Tweets?

Ultimately social media is about engagement with the other people who are using it. It is active engagement and therefore needs a different tone to your traditional online marketing. It is about providing relevant content to the audience, ever more so than simply providing content which is driven from a scientific behavioural algorithm. And so it is not just another marketing tool. It is a tool which will serve your business as a brand entity, if correctly managed. It is about listening and for a business listening is a difficult concept. But in listening you can understand what the conversation is about and actively participate in a manner which is relevant.

And in order to correctly manage it, you definitely need a bottom to top strategy. Formulated on the basis of what you’re the two way conversation is.