With so many of your customers and potential customers using social media, can you afford not to? Increasingly, the answer is no. Launching a social media program is cheaper and faster than you might think, but beware of the pitfalls.
Facebook now has 200 million registered members. Twitter grew more than 700% last year. Given this explosive growth, no business can afford to ignore the opportunity of social media for building brand awareness, attracting customers, and engaging clients. Many small and midsize businesses have had success with Facebook and other public social networks, while others have taken their strategy further to develop their own social communities where they control the environment from advertising to user-created content.
Among the vendors that companies engage to build their own social communities is Reality Digital, a provider of white label social media platforms for businesses. Companies use the Reality Digital software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform for social marketing programs that designed to build brand awareness, engage customers, generate feedback, and boost sales. Recently, the company introduced Reality Digital Harmony, a self-service social media platform specifically for small and midsize businesses. Reality Digital co-founder and CEO Cynthia Francis spoke with bMighty about the mistakes businesses make when taking the plunge into social media, the different ways to generate content, and the cost in dollars and time required to make it really work.
bMighty: With the recession, how have you seen businesses change their approach to social media change?
Cynthia Francis: We saw a lot of people totally freaking out and doing nothing; for a time last fall, everyone froze. But after the holidays, people seemed to shake themselves off and recognize that they still had a business and they still needed to connect with customers in a cost-effective way. Social media provides an interesting way to connect with customers, to promote feedback, hold contests, and launch new initiatives. Social media offers a tremendous opportunity to promote your brand and deepen the relationship customers have with your brand.
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bMighty: What's the biggest misconception people have about social media?
Francis: That it takes a lot of people and a lot of time. It doesn't. For example, we spend seven hours per week monitoring content for a very large client site. For a small business, you could spend less than 15 minutes a day monitoring your site and you'd be just fine. Of course, when you first set it up, you'll spend some hours participating in the community, but it's a choice not a requirement. If you're busy and don't log on for a week, the world doesn't end. Of course, it's great if you can check in once a week or even more.
bMighty: How should business gauge the value of social media?
Francis: The ROI really depends upon the metrics that are important to your business. If the value you're trying to derive is from the total amount of traffic, count page views and tie that to an increase or decrease in business; ad clicks are very measurable as well. Looking at the substance of comments and feedback is less quantifiable and it gets even more challenging if you're trying to discern an online-offline connection, but you can set up processes that allow you to measure that as well.
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