Get Social

Whether you’re making new client connections on LinkedIn or engaging customers via Facebook, there’s no denying that online social networking has emerged as a powerful marketing tool. The viral nature of social networking provides a level of exposure that is impossible to obtain through traditional marketing channels. It takes only seconds to message a friend on Facebook or post a tweet on Twitter, but those actions have the potential to make your brand visible to an audience of millions. Additionally, many social networking sites have upped the ante when it comes to business capabilities, providing tools that make it easy for you to track and communicate with consumers, identify competitors and more.

Understanding Your Options
Taking the plunge into the world of social networking can be daunting; it is truly a culture all its own and requires some working knowledge. You need to know what’s out there if you’re going to use it to your best advantage. Here’s a brief rundown:

Facebook is the world’s most popular social networking site – it reached 200 million users in April 2009 – and perhaps has the most options for businesses. Organizations of any kind can create public pages profiling their brands and services. Facebook users can become fans of your page and receive updates about your company, post comments and share the information with friends. Businesses can also create Facebook applications as a way to interact more directly with their audience.
LinkedIn provides an online community for professionals to make connections and build business relationships. If you (or your business) are not on LinkedIn, you should be. Joining the site can instantly increase the size of your rolodex, connecting you with potential clients and business opportunities in your area and beyond. You can also use LinkedIn to post job openings, search local candidates and pose questions to industry experts.
Twitter prompts users to create a 140-character answer to a simple question: “What are you doing?” Individuals or corporations create accounts and can choose others to “follow.” Not only can your consumers follow your updates, but you can keep track of what they are doing as well. Twitter’s network consists of over one million users sending over three million tweets per day. Twitter is fast-paced, bite-sized and extremely portable. Many users send and receive updates via mobile phone, so you can reach your followers anytime, anywhere.
YouTube, launched in 2006, is a Web site designed for online video sharing. Anyone can create an account, post a video and share it with the world. YouTube offers video statistics so you can see how many people have viewed your video.

Of course, there are many other social networks available to you, but the four listed above are the most popular and have the potential to generate the most exposure for your company.

Things to Consider

1. Make Sure It’s Right for You
Many companies are hesitant to become active members of the social networking community. The truth is, it’s not for everyone. Like any other marketing channel, a social networking strategy must fit your goals. Most importantly, your company needs to be able to dedicate the time and resources in order for it to be effective. For example, in order to see any ROI from a Twitter account, your business would need to make frequent updates (without consistent use, you will acquire very few followers). Such considerations will guide your decision-making when it comes to joining an online network.

For B2C brands, a Facebook application might be a great way to let your consumers have some fun with your brand. Users add applications to their profiles and share them with friends; the applications often involve sending and receiving something via the Web (i.e., a Fourth of July application might enable you to send a “sparkler” to a friend). In the case of Tippmann Sports, a leading developer of high-performance paintball products, Brady Communications developed a Facebook application to help them promote a new paintball marker. Tippmann already had a popular page on Facebook (now with over 14,000 fans), so their existing fan base could be used as a launching pad for the application. Brady Communications’ developers created a Facebook application that simulates a real paintball game. Users “hit” one another with paintballs, and the application tracks how many times you’ve been hit, how many people you’ve hit back and also ranks top players. So far, more than 38,000 Facebookers have been hit.

The Tippmann Facebook application is a great example of using social networking to promote not only a product, but also a brand. The pass-along nature of social networking means you have the ability to impact an audience that may have been out of reach when using traditional marketing. And because Tippmann already had a well-established fan base on Facebook, the paintball application was extremely effective in energizing their customers, who then passed on the application to friends.

2. Mind Your Manners
As in the tangible world, there are some societal expectations that come along with social networking. If your company’s Facebook page has attracted hundreds of fans, and many of them post comments frequently, you (or your site administrator) should acknowledge and respond to the discussions that are happening on your page. There is no need to respond to every comment, but you should be just as professional and courteous as you would be with a “real-life” customer. Not to mention, joining in on discussions is a great way to gain insight into your consumers and reinforce your brand messaging. When used smartly, social media can be an around-the-clock, worldwide focus group for your product or brand.

3. Integrate
Connect your LinkedIn profile to Facebook; tweet about interesting discussions on your Facebook page through Twitter; link all of your profiles to your video or commercial on YouTube. Connect your online channels into one seamless brand story. And don’t forget that social networking is all about attention-getting, which, in the online world, is typically achieved through multimedia. If your company has sponsored a local event, be sure to tweet about it, take pictures and post them on Facebook, or film a short video and put it on YouTube. The possibilities are truly endless.

4. Disclaimer
Because social networking is an open forum for others to get involved with your brand, these sites do require a certain amount of policing on your part. The sites themselves aim to take care of offensive content, but that does not stop users from being just plain rude. Be sure to check your pages often to keep posts and discussions in line with the integrity of your business.