Sazbean

Software Development Management

Main navigation

You are here: Home / Archives for Social Networks

Social Networks

/

Using Social Networks for Business – What Are Your Goals?

In the first post of this series, What Social Networks Should I Join to Promote My Business Website?, I gave an overview of some questions you should ask (and try to answer) to decide which social networks are best for your business.  The first question, is the most important:

What goal or problem am I trying to solve?

It may help to take a look at some possible answers:

  1. Increase Sales
  2. Increase Traffic to the Website – Why?  This is a common answer, but what does more traffic give you?  One would hope you’re actually trying to increase sales (see #1).
  3. Increase Customer Satisfaction – Good.  This should also lead to #1.
  4. Need more information on how our products/services are doing.  – Also good (and should lead to #1 – see a trend?)

Businesses often lose sight of their main goal – to increase sales.  Don’t become bogged down with all these new technologies and buzz words.  If sales are hurting because you have a customer serice or research problem, then use social networks and your website to solve that problem.

Take a deep breath.  Visualize what you’re trying to do and why.  Now we have a good foundation to move forward.

Technorati Tags: , ,

/

Internet Strategy Summit Forum – Mapping the Digital Landscape: A Strategic Guide

Presented by Geoffrey Ramsey, CEO of eMarketer

Data can be made to say anything you want.  People don’t trust advertising or marketing.

The growth rate for total media spending is only 3.3%.  The growth in traditional media – radio, tv, print is negative.  All the growth is online.  eMarketer is predicting 22.2% growth in online media spending, which includes online video and rich media.

Advice: Learn about communities. Test new marketing concepts without spending much money.

73% of online americans watch video online.  27% of online americans watch full length tv shows online.  47% are more engaged in the ads and 25% more engaged in the show than with traditional tv.  However – the audience is much smaller and spends less time per day watching.

Advice: Spending on online video ads should increase. They allow more measurability, target-ability and share-ability.

There are a few ways to use online video:

  1. Post video footage of your products and services on your website.
  2. Post video ads on content video sites (YouTube, etc.).  Relevancy is key.
  3. Create webisodes (ex. Will It Blend)

30% of US marketers are using blogging as a tactic.  Watch for what people are saying about your company.  It may appear higher in search results than what you say.

Strategies for social networking:

  1. Look, Listen, Lounge, Learn
  2. Advertise – Improved Targeting
  3. Advertise on smaller niche sites – be relevant
  4. BYO (build your own) social network – remember its not about your product or service – create something of value to your customers

Technorati Tags: , , ,

/

Internet Strategy Forum Summit – Creating a Social Strategy That Will Work

Presented by Charlene Li, VP & Principal Analyst, Forrester Research

The ease of posting anything on the Internet means that negative messages about your company may be higher in the search results than your own messages (ex. comcast technician sleeping on my couch – see YouTube).  This gives individuals enormous power, but it also means individuals help each other.

What can companies do about this?  Should this be something to fear?  It’s important for companies to have clear objectives about what they’re trying to achieve by using social media.  Think about relationships instead of technologies.

In the book, Groundswell, the following methodology is recommended:

  • P – People – Who is your audience? What are they doing online? How do they do it and when?
  • O – Objectives – What are you trying to accomplish for your business?
  • S – Strategy – Plan for how relationships with your customers will change.
  • T – Technology – Once all the other steps have been examined, take a look at what tools make sense to accomplish your goals.

People – Different types of people have different levels of online participation.  You can profile your customers at groundswell.forrester.com to see where they are on the participation ladder: inactives, spectators, joiners, collectors, critics, creators.  Age is a major driver of participation, but as more content becomes available online, there has been more participation.

Objectives – Different departments in your company will have different objectives for social media:

  • Market Research – Listening
  • Marketing – Talking (have open-ended conversations)
  • Sales – Energizing (activating your most passionate customers)
  • Support – Supporting (your customers can help support each other)
  • Development – Embracing (customer ideas and feedback can speed up and provide higher quality development which better meets the market needs)

Strategy – Start small because you will make lots of mistakes.  Think big about how this can transform your organization.  Control is an illusion – the conversations about your brand will happen whether or not you participate.  Understand what motivates people to participate – very rarely is monetary – they want to help, make a difference, be heard, and be part of a community.

Technology – This will depend on where the people you want to reach are already.  It may make more sense to participate in an existing community than to start your own.

Technorati Tags: , , ,