Social Media Is Changing How We Do Business... Are You Ready?
It’s not unheard of for an SME business
owner when asked who manages their social media to reply, “One of the team”. Often, that management of social sites is
secondary to the role the team member was hired for e.g. sales or customer
service.
When the company is larger with a bigger
customer base the thinking is generally different. The company may have an IT department, Marketing
department and someone tasked specifically to manage social sites. While the larger company appears to take
social media more seriously by dedicating resources to it, it may not be enough.
Lack of Cohesion
This was the case with a company I worked
with recently. Having done my research
before meeting them, I could see they had a huge campaign going on with daily
winners winning substantial prizes. Each day the names of winners were uploaded
onto the company website but nothing was mentioned on their social sites, and given
they had over 40,000 Fans on their Facebook page, who could have been doing a
lot of talking and sharing about those winners, it seemed like a missed
opportunity. When I asked about it I
was told “I’m not given that information”. Sitting in a room with key members
from management, IT, Marketing and their social site manager it was clear a
lack of cohesiveness existed between departments.
Fluffy Stuff
Now that’s not unheard of. We know about love/hate
relationships in many organisations between technology and marketing
departments but one without the other and a company is unlikely to survive.
With the recent arrival of social media into the business mix it’s rocked the
boat a bit. You’ll find marketing people
who think social media sits under IT while IT folks view it as the fluffy stuff
with nothing whatsoever to do with them.
It’s this lack of cohesiveness that can have a Social Media Manager
going it alone as was the case with the company I was doing the consulting with.
Integrate to Success
In the case of the company I recently worked with, the Social Media manager was
never invited to marketing meetings, so there was little collaboration on how
to promote campaigns using traditional methods as well as Social Media. It meant the marketing department didn’t view
their online community of over 40,000+ people as their primary target
audience. Make sense? No, it doesn’t and
it took sitting in a room with all the relevant people there for this otherwise
very forward thinking company to see that.
Like many other companies they hadn’t fully grasped the power of
integrating social media into their overall marketing goals. By the end of our session
together there was a complete turnaround in their thinking.
The Age of the Customer
If the goal is to be successful in what is
now becoming known as ‘The Age of the Customer’, businesses need to adapt and
the starting point is seeing technology, marketing and social media as deeply
entwined.
Social Media is changing how we do business...
are you ready?
To your success!
Carole
Carole
Smith, Founder of SynNeo, (www.synneo.ie) is a Social Media Strategist,
Business Coach, Keynote Speaker, and Blogger who helps SMEs use social media to
boost their brand online, attract new customers, and increase revenue.
You can follow Carole on Twitter https://twitter.com/CaroleSmith_ or say ‘hello’ on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/SocialMediaCoachIE
Social Media Is Changing How We Do Business... Are You Ready?
Reviewed by Anonymous
on
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
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Reviewed by Anonymous
on
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
Rating:
Anonymous
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