Social Media 101: Should Your Company Drink the Kool-Aid?
You’ve heard the term before: Social Media. But what exactly is Social Media and does your business need to be involved?
Social media is a concept which can be defined as consumer-specific interaction online. It is built on an idea about sharing information that has essentially been evolving from as far back as we can remember. Think about the postal service, telegraph, telephone, radio, television, internet and mobile phones. These advances in technology all radically altered how we communicate as people, consumers and businesses. Social media is just that—using the latest advances in web technology for individuals and businesses to communicate in our increasingly digitized environment.
There are a lot of people using social media
According to recent traffic statistics, the top 10 social media sites and their corresponding daily global reach are listed below:
1. Facebook—33%
2. YouTube – 26%
3. Wikipedia—12%
4. Blogger—11%
5. Twitter—6%
6. Wordpress—5%
7. MySpace—3%
8. Amazon—3%
9. LinkedIn—2%
10. Flickr—2%
To put some of these percentages in perspective, there are an estimated 1.8 billion internet users worldwide. A 33% reach share (Facebook at #1) would equal 594 million people while a 2% reach share (Flickr at #10) would equal 36 million people.
So, with this type of exposure, it is easy to see why the social media craze has drawn so much attention.
What social media can do and how businesses are using them
There are a plethora of relevant tools and features from different social media sites that businesses can use to drive sales, share customer experiences, rate products/services, promote relevant news/information, define technical information and network etc. Below are a few examples and real-world applications.
Facebook
Facebook is built on the fact that people enjoy keeping in touch with friends. It is a free online community where users can share information, photos, status updates etc with others. Earlier this year, there were over 350 million people registered with accounts and 175 million daily users. Many businesses are realizing this opportunity and taking advantage of the consumer traffic on Facebook. One success story includes the Beverly Hills-based cupcake company Sprinkles Cupcakes. Their Facebook page constantly promotes their business through event posting, photo updates and special offers that drive customers to their brick & mortar stores. Through creative and targeted promotional campaigns—they have been hugely successful cultivating a devoted following of existing clients as well as attracting new clients through Facebook “likes” system which is similar to word-of-mouth advertising in traditional media.
Twitter
Twitter is a free way for people to hear and share up-to-date information in a concise and on-the-go manner. Twitter users can post about anything they want. If it’s interesting, then other Twitter users “follow” them. When you follow another user you see immediately what they’re posting about as well as how to find out more information. In addition, you can run searches Twitter for the specific information you’re looking for. As of early 2010, Twitter had over 100 million user accounts. Though many individual consumers will use Twitter—businesses are jumping on board too. Companies are leveraging Twitter as another means of getting information to their customers/stakeholders—and fast. A great example of this is with Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT). MDOT uses Twitter to update travelers and citizens in the Detroit area about construction and road projects in real-time—thereby reducing traffic congestion and saving people time (and money).
YouTube
You might know YouTube as the website where people can upload videos on just about anything. In March 2010 alone the website had over 135 million viewers—reaching 75% of everyone who watched a video online that month. The community of viewers is huge—but the best thing is you don’t have to have an account to watch videos—dramatically increasing the volume of people flowing to the site. Since Google bought YouTube back in 2006, they have helped make it into a search engine for videos. This, coupled with its improved system and ease-of-use make it a fantastic social media tool for businesses. For instance, any company can setup a channel and upload videos to share with their customers and stakeholders. Companies can share new product launches, promote their services, provide information on tutorials, lessons, or trouble shoot customer problems. The Girl Scouts of America have used YouTube as a campaign medium to promote their organization. Using YouTube allows them to create an effective marketing strategy that can be easily shared (viral marketing) and included not only on the YouTube website, but embedded on their own website too. Their goal is educating people so that the next time a Girl Scout shows up at the door selling cookies—people understand how buying cookies helps the organization and the community.
Interested in how your business can utilize social media? NetSearch Direct can offer you a social media audit of your business and help you implement your own social media strategy! If you’d like to learn more or to setup an informational session, please contact Kate Snowa at 1-800-418-8505 or kates@netsearchdirect.com.