Businesses' Social Media Marketing

What barriers to using social media do businesses face?

• Can't figure out how it fits with their business
• Fear of giving up control
• Fear of the democratized nature of it - direct lines of communication with customers

What are the results of social media? 

• Tweeting/posting don't guarantee results 
• Consume/interact comes first, purchases later
• How do we attract people?  Get subscribers? Get attention? 

Should I ONLY do social media & forget about a website?

• Twitter/Facebook are great places to start a relationship.  Long-lasting impact requires a website.  Website is your real estate.  FB/Twitter can change, are not yours, are not under your control.  

Should we set a social media POLICY for how to represent ourselves?

• General guidelines align brand values, accountability
• Not a 30pg document
• Prevents disputes about being censored
• Lays groundwork, states expectations clearly builds trust
• When policy is clear, you are empowered to delete violations (like vulgarity)

Technologically driven communications world is new to our generation

• Not used to it, drives hesitation with how to proceed & rules
• Making rules as we go along. What's acceptable? Where do we draw the line. Biz leaders struggles with this.  
• What is the etiquette? Appropriate? Society isn't sure yet.
• Should we outsource or not?  Where do we draw the line?
•  Incidents where a marketing agency assigned to update an account, and accidentally posted to wrong account.  Must clean up the mess. Backpedaling.
• As customer: if i'm interacting with this biz, but it's a third party, am I REALLY engaging with that biz.   What are there culture?  Values?  
• Everyone below CEO/founders is an employee.  Important thing is picking someone that will represent you well in the way that you want. Communicate those expectations clearly.  Define goals clearly.  Be in line with philosophy.  
• Win-win for consumers & company if a co doesn't have the resources to do it on their own. It's necessary. 

How do you determine if your efforts are successful?  What should businesses measure? 

• Establishing your goals upfront
• A GOOD agency will not just say - "here's your FB page",  they'll help you think through your plan more clearly
• WHY do you want this page?
• WHO will manage this community?
• Metrics will be a part of these goals: quantitative and qualitative
• Quantitative: How many more visitors, leads, sales, likes, have you received? Tangible measured
• Qualitative: Can be more powerful. What are people saying? What does that brand reputation look like?  The digital footprint.  Word of mouth can't always be tracked in a linear way.  Have to get creative.  Not always a direct shot.  But there's certainly correlation.
•  Social media and search are playing together

 Key points to ensure social media success?

• Understand goals for company, see if social media is a fit
• Get buy-in from other folks in the company.  Chances for success skyrocket.  Have everyone understand, or risk tension.  
• Have to have long-term vision to maintain... Not just short

Emerging trends should organization be looking for?  Evolutions on the horizon as more people adopt & more platforms come out?

• Integration - HOW we use technology.  More mindfulness on how we interact with the tools/tech.
• When social media, SEO, PR, REb? work TOGETHER, that's when we create the best ROI
• GooglePLUS umbrella is increasing
• Search & social & mobile will become more and more integrated and seamless
• Harder to track, but more efficient
• Less about the tools we use and more about what we want to accomplish

WHY use social media?  Why is it essential?  Why is it important in the business world?

[SOURCE: Shama Kabani On How Organizations Can Succeed With Social Media]