There were time limits on many of our discussion points, so there were some important things we didn’t cover:
Social Media creates distraction
This can be true, but it also can be managed… We human beings must be disciplined about our time; especially when at work and it can be easy to lose hours, even days, ‘surfing the net’.
Of course productivity is a concern, so again, I say: know what you’re trying to achieve and be committed to measuring effectiveness. I also say – and this applies to email and mobile phones, as well as social media: turn off the pings! If you’re concentrating on something or you’re in a meeting, then turn off the alerts…
Social Media is all about information
I stressed a lot that social media is not about selling. A point I wanted to make was that John, against the use of social media, viewed our website in advance of the debate, checking out who I am and what I know – we know this thanks to our Lead Forensics service!
Interestingly, 12 out of the 14 pages John visited on our site were social media related… #justsaying
Coca cola has 65m Facebook fans
They achieved only 20k engagement posts, which was deemed a failure last night as it also didn’t show an uptake in sales. My challenge is: what were they hoping for and what were they actually measuring?
Again, social media is not about selling. It’s about raising profile and awareness. The fact that 65m people are aware of their page means that their posts are still potentially getting in front to those 65m people. So next time they buy a fizzy soft drink, it’s more likely to be a Coke!
As a marketer, I would suggest clients carry out awareness research before and after a high-cost/ high-impact campaign, so they can measure their rates of prompted and unprompted awareness…
Compliance
Interestingly, no one raised a query about using social media in the financial or legal sectors, but I got a few face to face questions afterwards and reiterated that the key principles behind social media are exactly as the FCA and Law Society preach.
Turning up and down the volume & managing it
We discussed managing complainants online and how some brands use Facebook or Twitter to manage customer service. What is absolutely key is that all businesses, regardless of size, need guidelines on how to manage this type of communication – such as a response policy. There’s a difference between responding – and reacting…
Do you need help with your social media strategy or policy? Give us a call…
