By: Brad McCorkle, reprinted with permission from Administrative Eyecare
Social media has exploded into the U.S. collective consciousness, fueled, at least in part, by “Generation Y’s” youthful penchant to draw attention and col- lect “friends.” After years of evolv- ing, however, social media has final- ly gotten practical, reaching beyond the personal and transforming the business world. Companies of all sizes are using various social media channels to connect with current and potential customers and other industry insiders. Whether it is to promote events, differentiate servic- es, or solicit feedback from cus- tomers, social media provides the platform to inexpensively connect with a large audience.
A recent article in Business Week takes it further, into the realm of a personal connection:
At the most basic level, a social networking site allows you to identify your business contacts—from prospects and customers to partners and associ- ates—and establish a personal link between you and each of them.1
Pick Three Platforms
If your practice or organization is going to engage social media in any meaningful fashion, remember the fundamentals of focus and consisten- cy. In other words, have a strategy.
Many sites have the same or similar functionality, so it’s critical to evalu- ate all potential social media outlets and choose the few that would work best for your company or practice. It is best to pick about three widely used and applicable channels and focus on those. You might consider Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, blogs, etc.
Make sure that consistent mes- saging is spread across all three chan- nels and there is regularity to the posts. You should take a similar approach to social media as you do your marketing efforts: Don’t expect to place one ad in one magazine and achieve anything memorable. Occasionally dabbling with social media results in limited effectiveness as well.
Have One Team Member Manage Your Campaign
I recommend having a team member dedicated to firmly establishing your practice’s brand in the social media landscape. It may not be practical for your practice to have a staff member completely dedicated to social media (a social media expert can handle other marketing initiatives as well); however, communicating that social media is an important part of some- one’s job description is a step in the right direction.
Having a staff member responsi- ble for the execution of your social media campaign also enables your organization to be aware of the latest social developments, sites, and fea- tures. A great resource for your social media director is Mashable (http://mashable.com), a blog dedi- cated to discussing the advance- ments of social media and technolo- gy trends. The site also offers tips, tricks, and tutorials that break down social media concepts and technolo- gy and show how they can be applied by small practices and big businesses.
Establish Clear Goals, Expectations, and Success Indicators
Along with focusing on three social media channels, you should estab- lish clear goals and expectations around the type and frequency of messaging, as well as the results you hope to achieve. Remember: Anything worth doing is worth measuring.
When you get more clear about your own goals and expectations, you begin to experience impressive results. For example, in the last three months, the number of our followers on Twitter has grown by 81%. Tweets are being mentioned or re- tweeted by our followers to their fol- lowers. That amounts to a very pow- erful word-of-mouth campaign—the best kind of marketing.
Integrate Your Platforms to Make Them Easier to Manage
Keeping a consistent message and presence across multiple social media sites can be time consuming. Sites such as Hootsuite (http://hootsuite. com) put all social media outlets into one central location for viewing on your computer monitor. The soft- ware also allows you to send updates to all channels simultaneously, mak- ing it that much easier to manage several accounts at once. There is also a feature to set up “pending tweets” so a tweet is never missed.
Consider Messaging with Video
Using video in social media is also an effective strategy for connecting with customers. The unique social power of video (when done properly) creates a connection, and ultimately helps build trust between you and your audience. Not to mention, video is simply more entertaining!
Jing is a helpful tool for making video tutorials. Jing is free software from TechSmith that allows you to capture the live movements on your computer’s screen, combine that with audio, and then make a movie of sorts. The video can be up to five minutes long, a perfect amount for a quick tour of your practice website and your FAQs, for example. Short videos make Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and blogs more interesting to the viewer—and they are relative- ly easy to produce.
When you’re planning your video, ask how you can produce one that not only entertains but solves a problem. As noted by Jim Kukral in Socialnomics: Social Media Blog,
Let’s face it: Videos are powerful word-of-mouth generators and atten- tion-getters. Your old tri-fold brochure, not so much.2
Summing Up
Social media is ever-evolving—and it’s becoming a prime marketing channel for today’s businesses. The most important thing a practice can do is to have an active presence and stay up to date with the newest trends and advancements.
Dedicating one employee to social media is a no-brainer for the practice that takes social media seri- ously. Picking a few outlets and keeping a consistent message across all social media platforms is crucial to getting a substantial following and keeping it. The best way to ensure optimal social media response is to engage the audience in a way that is creative, personable, and memorable. Now is the time to lever- age the power of social media for your business—build your business one tweet at a time!
Notes
1. Riggen-Ransom, Michelle. Social media for small business. BusinessWeek - Business News, Stock Market & Financial Advice. Retrieved Oct. 2010 from www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/ tips/archives/2010/04/social_media_for _small_business.html.
2. Kukral, Jim. You HAVE to make videos … Period! Socialnomics – Social Media Blog. Retrieved Oct. 2010 from http://social- nomics.net/2010/08/07/you-have-to-make- videos-period/.
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