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Can People Be Taught How to Use Social Media?

learningatomicjeepLast night, Chris Brogan asked whether Social Media can be taught based on a post by Adam Cohen, which got me thinking.  My initial reaction is yes, of course, people are fairly intelligent (for the most part) and they know how to have conversations in person, so having conversations with social media shouldn’t be too much of a jump.  Using social media to have conversations just requires understanding the technologies and the techniques needed to keep track of what’s being said.

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Are You Building an Audience or a Community?

Chris Brogan had a great post yesterday – Audience or Community.  I think businesses often get caught up in the need to use every new technology to grow and reach their audience, when the advantage of social networks is in the ability to create, engage and be a part of a community.

The only difference between an audience and a community is which direction the chairs are pointing. I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately. When we say community and we mean our selling demographic, that’s not the same thing. When we say community and we mean audience to absorb our message, that’s not the same thing. It’s important to understand this. – Chris Brogan – Audience or Community

When you take a look at a lot of Twitter and Facebook accounts – they’re just people and companies broadcasting about what’s important to them.  But they’re missing the true power of the technologies.  Using Twitter and Facebook and other social networking tools, you can create a community around your company’s products.  This community allows people interested in your company to engage and meet and talk to each other as well as you.  This turns out to be much more engaging than just broadcasting your message – and can be much more powerful, meaningful and useful in the long run.

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Using Facebook as a Business Tool – Some Examples

toolsbategaOn Monday I talked about how Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter are just tools.  In order to properly use tools, you first need to figure out what the job is and what it entails (or coming up with a goal and a strategy).  So, let’s say that you’ve done the hard work of figuring out a business goal and now you’re trying to figure out how to use Facebook to help you attain that goal.  While every business and industry is going to be different, I thought it might help to run through a few example scenarios… (please keep in mind that these are examples and not the only way to use Facebook – also not necessarily the way to use it for your business – these are just for learning purposes.)

Scenario 1: Increase Sales of Product X by 5% in 3 months

5% is usually a pretty reasonable goal.  So how would you normally increase sales of a product?  Advertise, market, network, contact potential leads, reconnect with past customers, etc.  Almost all of the typical tasks you would do offline can also be accomplished online.  Using Facebook, you definitely can advertise by using their platform – targeting specific demographics.  Marketing can be accomplished by creating a profile, a company page and posting interesting information – as well as engaging with customers and potential leads (oh! look! you can also network with potential customers and past customers).

Scenario 2: Increase Revenues by 10% over next 6 months

Increasing Revenues usually involves increasing sales – so similar to Scenario 1 – but also probably a big campaign to generate new leads.  (Remember revenues is not the same as profits.  If you’re looking at increasing profits, you also have to look at possibly reducing costs.)  Scenario 2 will probably look pretty similar to Scenario 1, but you’ll also reach out to generate more leads.  How do you usually do this?  By providing something of value and benefit to potential customers.  Using Facebook, it also means providing useful information (which is not the same as advertising and may not always be about your prodcuts) and connecting with people – sort of a consultative sale before there’s even a sale potential.

Scenario 3: Reduce Costs by 20% over the next quarter

Facebook helping to reduce costs?  Well, yes.  How much are you spending on advertising and marketing?  Much of the same result can be attained much more cost effectively and efficiently using social networking, such as Facebook.  Facebook still involves time, but it allows you to reach a much more specific (and interested) audience by engaging with them and providing information and relationships (benefits) that they want.

Conclusion

These are in no way the only ways to use Facebook and they also are not necessarily the way your company should use it – even if you have similar goals to those above.  These scenarios are only for illustrative purposes and to help people understand possible ways to use Facebook for business.  Also, please notice that each business goal is very specific and for a well defined time frame – the only way you’ll actually achieve a goal is if it’s achievable.  Setting a goal like “I want to be rich” doesn’t really give you anything definite to shoot for (what do you consider rich?  how fast? how will you do it?).

How do you use Facebook for your business?  How does that tie in with your business goal?

(pic by batega @ Flickr CC)

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