Unsurprisingly, this has resulted in a rush of companies jumping on the social media bandwagon, eager to lay claim to the untold riches that a social media presence may bring their business. As a result, the social media landscape is now littered with abandoned accounts, forgotten twitter handles and broken dreams.
This is largely because most of these businesses didn’t first stop to ask themselves the three W’s of social media – Why, Who and What?
As a public relations professional, clients and friends often approach me asking if they or their business should be on social media and my answer to them is simple – have you asked yourself the three W’s?
I’ve explained the three W’s below which may be of benefit if you’re thinking of launching a social media campaign to support your business.
Why?
This is the single most important question you can ask yourself as a business owner or individual interested in establishing a social media presence. If you’re doing it because everyone else is or purely because you believe your customers are on social media - you should stop right there.
This is the single most destructive approach I see businesses and individuals take to social media and will likely result in little return from your efforts or even damage to your businesses’ reputation.
There are many good reasons for investing into social media, such as establishing yourself as an opinion leader, informing customers of promotions or making yourself more available to customer feedback.
However, the operative word here is ‘investing’. Social media communication takes time and effort and these factors have an opportunity cost. Before you start you may want to do a careful cost-benefit analysis to ensure it will be a worthwhile endeavour.
Your reasoning for being on social media will also heavily influence the types of activity you undertake on social media.
For a business that wants to make itself available to communicate promotions with customers and receive feedback, there’s little point in describing your latest financial results in great detail or boasting about a new strategic initiative you’re undertaking.
The key here is to define why you want to embark on social media and ensure this is always front of mind through your social media initiatives and journey.
Who?
There are two aspects to the Who of social media – who will be posting and who are you trying to reach.
Firstly, the decision of who will be posting is crucial to the success of your social media strategy. If you’re a larger brand, it may be a good strategy to set up a ‘brand page’ on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
This is because it’s likely that your brand is more visible and relatable to the public compared to individual figures within your company.
If you’re a smaller company, or have a significant profile within your community (an over-used example is Richard Branson) it may be best for social media accounts to be set up under the name of the founder or owner of the company.
This brings me to the second who – who are you trying to reach on social media. This question will likely be answered in your response to why and will inform your decision of where to connect with your customers on social media and the content you push in order to elicit a reaction to this audience.
With the proliferation of a new social platforms almost every second day, I recommend narrowing your focus to two to three platforms and achieving results on these.
It’s very easy to get caught up in the rush and open accounts on every platform you can find, however, managing multiple social media accounts (on top of the accounts you already have personally) will likely be difficult and you may end up neglecting some altogether.
The two to three platforms you should focus on will vary from business to business, however, as a quick guide if you’re a B2B business, LinkedIn, Twitter and Google+ are all good examples to look at.
If you’re B2C and depending on your product, Pintrest, Twitter, Facebook and Snapchat are all platforms you may want to look in to.
It’s worthwhile spending some time getting to know your customers and where they spend their time online as this will better inform your choice of platform.
What?
By making the decision to engage in social media you’re effectively placing power over your company’s reputation in the hands of your followers and other members of that community. This is why the choice of what you post on social media should be handled cautiously and with the utmost of care.
Your aim is to have your social media contacts engage with you on some level through the platforms you have chosen.
Public relations agencies can offer great advice in this instance as they can help develop a strategy that ensures your content is both informative and engaging – while also targeted at your audience and aligned with your business objectives.
It’s also critical to remember here that an approval process for posts may come in handy to ensure that each post is carefully thought through and risk assessed.
Conclusion
Businesses shouldn’t necessarily shy away from the use of social media due to its potential risks. However, an awareness of what may be on the line when posting, liking, sharing, tweeting or commenting could go a long way to preventing potential disaster.
As investor extraordinaire Warren Buffet says, “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.”
These are wise words to consider when approaching social media.
Develop a careful strategy, and processes that support that strategy and you are well set up to enjoy the fruits that social media can deliver to a business to succeed
ZMM is leading public relations agency based on Sydney. They offer advice on how to promote your business through the media, to customers and through social media channels. Visit www.zmmgroup.com
