If you connect to the world in any fashion during the day—Internet, radio, TV, newspapers—it’s hard to avoid hearing or reading about the impact of social media. It seems like its being used everywhere for both silly reasons and the profound, whether it’s Charlie Sheen tweeting his latest thoughts or Arab citizens reshaping their societies. It’s certainly reshaping the way businesses work. If you’re just getting started with social media or if you haven’t made the jump, here are some things to think about.
First, understand the differences between the “Big Three.” Twitter is like a cocktail party with small, simultaneous conversations going on all at once. Facebook is the place where people get to know you better or know your name, your face, your interests, your goals. LinkedIn is the most “professional” and business-oriented social media channel, like a worldwide Chamber of Commerce.
With this in mind, consider these points.
- Social media is an incredibly useful tool for businesses. For some, it’s an absolute necessity. But it’s not for every company. If your business deals directly with consumers, then it’s probably a great idea to have Facebook and Twitter accounts. For example, a restaurant or a camera store could use their social media to keep customers up-to-date on trends or discounts. If you’re running a business-to-business operation, think through the steps in the next bullets.
- For service businesses—say, an accounting or engineering firm—social media is a great way to stay in touch with your customers. Obviously you don’t want to discuss confidential information, but you can use social media to point out interesting articles, provide links to developments in your field that might be of interest to your customers, or keep your regulars posted about social events where you can meet in person.
- Some companies actually don’t need to worry about developing social media networks. Typically, they have very well defined offerings that remain relatively stable. For example, it’s unlikely that a plumbing supply company needs social media; it’s customers know exactly what’s being offered, and they’re not likely to be looking for the continual stream of information that is so much a part of social media. However, if they want to stand apart from other plumbing companies, they might want to blog about maintenance and other home or business plumbing issues and then share those posts on social media channels.
Here are some other interesting statistics on the quick, meteoric rise of the use of social media in business:
- From December 2009 to December 2010, users with a biography listed on Twitter increased from 31 percent to 69 percent. (Pew Research)
- 22 percent of Fortune 500 companies now have a public-facing blog that has at least one post in the past 12 months (comScore)
- Social networking site usage grew 88 percent among Internet users aged 55-64 between April 2009 and May 2010 (Pew Research)
- LinkedIn has grown by an impressive 100 percent from last year, it now has over 100 million users across the globe. Interestingly, 56% of these users are from outside of the US.
Keep in mind the characteristics of the three main social media channels discussed above. Build a strategy that makes the most sense for each, whether it’s a quick keeping-in-touch message (Twitter), building a richer picture of your business (Facebook), or making connections (LinkedIn).
In our next post, we’ll talk about some essential do’s and don’ts for social media.
