Listen to the Expert

      I was able to talk to Stephen Booth, a strategist and expert on social media and technology. He currently works for Blend IMC, a global marketing team helping companies reach their advertising goals. Stephen is constantly working with media for companies and is a fantastic worker with blogs and Twitter. I asked Stephen a few questions that would be beneficial to you and your company as you seek to utilize advertising via social media for your company.

Q: Why should your company use social media?

A: "Social media is a great tool to help a company become a thought leader in their field. As a company produces quality content on a particular topic, they gain respect and more people start to look to them for answers. The goal is for their name to become synonymous with that topic in the minds of any potential customer. A company should also use social because they can generate leads through social channels. Social should be an integral part of any inbound marketing strategy. A majority of almost any company’s potential customer pool is already active on social media. When a company publishes valuable content via social channels, they are attracting and qualifying potential customers. Companies can leverage the value of their content to gain contact information from prospects, turning them into leads. Finally, companies should use social to get feeback from and have genuine conversations with customers. Social is one of the most effective ways companies have ever had at their disposal to listen to their customers. Brands can use social media to learn more about customer sentiment, how customers use their products/ services, what frustrations customers have with their products services. Smart companies engage with their customers on social and, most importantly, are quick to acknowledge their own shortcomings, address customer complaints, and make changes to their products/ services."

Q: What are the advantages and disadvantages of using social media?

A: "There are so many advantages as listed in the answer above. It would be a disadvantage if a company tried investing in their social presence but didn’t have full organizational buy-in or a content team to support their social efforts because they would probably see a very low ROI."

Q: Does the company need to hire someone to run these operations?

A: "It really depends on many factors like the company’s industry, size of the company, current organizational talent, the company’s social goals, their budget, etc. It would probably be wise for most medium to large companies to hire employees to lead social efforts. Small companies can be extremely effective on social channels, but they can probably utilize existing internal talent to lead social efforts. While social training/ consulting can be helpful to get a company started with their social efforts, social is typically most effective when handled in house."

Q: What advice would you give to a company looking to use social media to advertise their brand?

A: "Think long-term. Don’t expect to see new customers walking in the door from social media tomorrow. Social works best when integrated with an inbound strategy and inbound marketing is slower to boil, but inversely, has a long tail. Do everything with the customer’s needs/ wants in mind. Think of it in terms of making friends in real life. If you’re always hitting people over the head with your product/ service, you’ll be all alone at the bar. Put yourself in the mind of your ideal customer. How can you get him/her exactly what they want when they want it? Have a community mindset. Help others, be social, provide relevant & valuable information to the conversation. It’s not about your company, it’s about helping people meet their needs. If you help people meet their needs, they’re gonna be loyal. Get specialized. Each social network is unique. Don’t expect your Twitter strategy to work for Facebook. It’s better to optimize your presence for results on one particular channel than throw content across a myriad of social channels with little results on any. Once you’re up and running on one network, branch out and spend a month learning the next one on your strategic agenda. Social networks are not created equal. Different social networks work well for different types of businesses. Facebook is generally effective for B2C/ local businesses, but linked in often works much better for national B2B companies. Have a strategy and know why you’re investing on the social networks your on. If a majority of your potential customers are on Tumblr, it would be pointless to put all your efforts into developing your Twitter profile. Content is king. Your engagement is only going to be as good as your content. If you’re putting out weak content, people aren’t going to engage."