Why does my company need social media?
Whether you are running a small, local operation, or heading a global, enterprise-level effort, the statistics above make it clear: Your customers are online. They are interacting in social channels with their friends, colleagues, and other brands in search of information, recommendations, and entertainment. If your company is not around to answer, a competitor will be. In doing so, your competitor will quite likely take away the customer at hand, along with anyone else listening.
There are tons of opportunities to add value—even to delight!—and making that connection can help build a person’s relationship with a company, brand, or representative. Those relationships create the foundation for what can eventually become one of your greatest marketing assets: customer advocacy.
Because so much of the customer experience now lives on the web, social media enables brands to take part in a customer’s online experience outside of the typical channels.
As you make your case for your brand’s social media endeavors, you’ll likely need to show value to your leadership or clients. The good news is that with a little analysis, the data is on your side. Let’s start by building a business case that’s right for you.
You know your organization better than just about anyone, so trust your gut. If you’re worried about pushback, you can run some small-scale tests to see how it goes and build a case for your effort. In safe pockets—places where you can play around and create the foundation for your business case without much risk—build out a trial or two that touch on some of the most pressing issues your organization faces, and see if you can’t prove the impact of social media in those areas. You might even look to your competitors for some good examples. Once these tests have yielded results, present your new data to whomever needs to give the social sign-off. This strategy of starting small helps buy you the permission and trust you’ll need to work towards some of the more difficult results.
Framing your business case
If you have tried making a business case and you’re still being met with resistance, don’t give up. Try building out specific case studies to add substance to your pitch, giving higher-ups a feel for what it will eventually look like. If you have an opportunity to start small, dipping a toe in the water with minimal risk, your results can speak volumes. Once you have something new to show, you can revisit and strengthen your business case. It’s hard to argue with data.
Why does my company need social media?
If you ever find yourself in a bind, your advocates will help remind the rest of the world who they’re rooting for. Advocacy is not something that you can stumble upon or buy. Advocacy is earned over time through continuous and positive engagement with your customer base. It is earned through experiences that delight, and through the delivery of the highest class of customer service.
Advocacy is the nirvana of social media, and it is through advocacy that your efforts start to truly scale and grow. It shows that your brand is doing such an amazing job that your customers shout about your brand from rooftops, sharing their opinions and experiences with their networks. That sharing is the best marketing a brand can ask for.
Identifying potential advocates is a good first step. You can use social tools (many of which are outlined in the rest of this guide), site data, customer data, and even your own observations to help you pick out which customers are likely to go to bat for your brand. You’ll want to figure out what is most important to those potential advocates. What are they looking for? Are they fishing for recognition? Are they excited by exclusive access to news and/or content? Figure out what type of advocates your brand attracts and find ways to recognize them for their advocacy. It is important to note, though, that most of your greatest community relationships will be built organically. While your research and brand knowledge encourages people and helps you put the right foot forward, relationships take time.
The transition from a passive web to an interactive web has brought with it many changes affecting how individuals connect with one another and also how businesses operate. At this stage in the game, it’s fair to say that a web presence is critical to the success of a business. You can’t get ahead if you’re ignoring your customer’s online conversations or opting to look the other way. Use this opportunity to get closer to your audience than ever before—reach more people in a genuine and authentic manner, drive more qualified site traffic, increase the authority of your brand, engage the people who influence your customers’ behavior, and gain the data necessary for insights-based business decisions.
Maybe a better question is, why wouldn’t your company use social media?