SOCIAL MEDIA

Social media (network) channels

Social media (network) services are online platforms, which allow people to create a profile representing themselves, and connect with others to broadcast information, stay in touch, send messages and recommend one another.

You could either join a general social networking site - such as Twitter or Facebook - or a specialist site for professionals and businesses such as LinkedIn.

Social media channels allow you to build a community of engaged customers who will spread your news and information for you. They can also help you get answers to business questions and find new suppliers.

Choosing the right social media platforms

Using social networks can make you stand out from your competitors. Engaging with your customers online can raise awareness and build your reputation as a trusted supplier. 

Social networks give your business an opportunity to gain new contacts from the comfort of your office. Don't underestimate the savings in cost, time and other resources such as travel that not having to attend a physical networking event can bring to your enterprise.

Social networking can improve your business in a number of key areas:

• recruitment
• marketing
• brand building
• customer interaction
• locating strategic commercial partners
• gathering business intelligence

When choosing which social media platform to use, it's important to understand where your customers are. You should target your efforts towards the channels they use. In some cases, you will find your best choice is obvious - for example, you may already know that there is a group on Facebook that reflects your business interests and is used by your customers. You may find you need a combination of social media channels to cover all your needs.

Important questions to ask when choosing a social network

Here is a short and simple list of three of the big questions to ask when choosing a social network.

1. Does it make sense for my content? (See the seven types of networks listed above.)
2. Do potential fans spend time there? (See the demographic information above.)
3. Does it make sense for me?

It’s this final piece—your gut—that could make the most telling argument for or against a social network. If you’ve done your research already and are still on the fence, answering the “gut” question might be the deciding factor.

Does it make sense for me? 

Social networks were broke down into seven different types, each with their own characteristics.

1. Kitchen-sink networks: Twitter and Facebook
2. Image-based networks: Pinterest, Instagram, Tumblr
3. Video networks: YouTube, Vimeo, Vine
4. Business-focused networks: LinkedIn
5. SEO and authorship networks: Google+
6. Location-based networks: Foursquare, Yelp
7. Niche networks: reddit

Which social networks should you join? 

Let me start off by saying that you can judge the necessity of your being on a social network by looking at the stats and asking yourself important questions. And then, if it’s still just too much to take in and you’d like someone to tell you what to do, here’re some answers.

Should you be on Facebook?

Yes, if you don’t mind the competition. More than 70 percent of online adults actively use Facebook. It is far and away the most popular social network. If your customers use the Internet, they’re very likely to be on Facebook. Consider, though, that with great popularity comes great competition. The News Feed is a crowded place for your business updates.

Facebook is one of the most powerful social platforms in the world. It's size alone is a positive for any business, because you can assume most people are on it.
Unlike Twitter, you can choose what to look at and what to share. This gives businesses more opportunities to represent themselves in various ways. Facebook is about a long-term commitment and building relationships, although there's some immediacy as you can reply directly to people's comments or questions.

Almost any business can benefit from having a Facebook page. But Facebook isn't about selling. Your goal in using Facebook for business is to let customers get to know the people behind the logo. You'll want to portray your business in a friendly, "sociable" manner, as a place where customers are treated well and "everybody knows your name." For example, photos should illustrate not just you at your desk but your dog at a company event, or your staff all teaming up to work at Habitat for Humanity. If done correctly, your fans become loyal followers and Facebook can be a very significant lead generator.

Should you be on Twitter?

Yes, if you’ve interested in a younger, tech-savvy crowd. Topical and timely work great on Twitter. Be aware that a tweet reaches its peak after 18 minutes, so get your next tweet ready fast.

Twitter is an ongoing conversation that, like text messaging, has become widely popular. Unlike Facebook and other social media platforms, where people can choose what to look at on your site, or respond later, Twitter is more "in the moment."

It's a marvelous tool for businesses that want to reach out to people now and expect--and are ready for--people to reply. If you have breaking news, updates, questions for your followers, or if you want opinions now or even need to announce a recall, Twitter is the way to reach out to people. It's for the business that has things to say frequently and prefers to reach people directly. 

Should you be on LinkedIn?

Yes, if you can play the business game. LinkedIn’s audience is full of great insights on work productivity, networking, and job hunting. B2B companies love it. B2C companies are still figuring it out.

LinkedIn is the consummate networking site. Even before the term "social media" became fashionable, we had social networking, and that clearly defines LinkedIn. It's a way of growing connections in the business world and utilizing them as necessary. It's great for reaching out people and getting into their qualifications. It also includes groups and discussions where you can politely discuss your interests, show that you're transparent, solicit advice, ask questions and answer questions, letting your expertise impress others. 

Service providers are more prevalent than manufacturers or retailers, because it's easier to talk about what you do or what your business does, and it's not a very visual medium.

Should you be on Google+?

Yes, if you want to impact your SEO. There are other reasons to join Google+, of course. One of the biggest is that its user base is so large and the competition is so low. Each new post comes with SEO juice, too. A word of warning: Things might seem a bit quiet at times.

Google Plus has a huge user base. With more than 540 million active monthly users, Google Plus sees its number of users increase daily. Facebook continues to be the social media behemoth with the most users. But the increase in web traffic via this site indicates that businesses can choose to ignore it at their own peril. Besides, the value of grabbing the first mover advantage over one's competition cannot be overstated. Google+ users are often early adopters and technology lovers. Your customers will be on it sooner rather than later and many probably already are.

Should you be on You Tube?
Yes, if your content can be transmitted to your customers as an interesting video message or story.

YouTube is a very powerful tool, visually driven and potentially very exciting. It has become synonymous with homemade or company-made videos. It's watched worldwide, and people post videos with hopes of going viral.

The key to using YouTube effectively is to feature your product or service in an unforgettable way, and with millions of people now using YouTube, the bar is set very high. No one will watch a boring video.

Like Pinterest, you can use YouTube to capitalize on our innate love of visuals. It's a good idea to watch a number of YouTube videos and see which ones generated hundreds of thousands (or even millions) of hits. Videos that show people how to do something, demonstrate your product or service, or introduce a new or unusual (visual) product can help you benefit from YouTube.

Should you be on Instagram?

Yes, if photography is your jam. Instagram works great in a pairing with Facebook or Twitter, and business is booming. More and more users join every day, albeit young ones.

With Instagram, companies can shoot, edit and share photos that activate and engage users. It may be part of a long-term branding or short term, as part of a campaign. As the fastest growing social network with over 100 million users, more and more companies are turning to Instagram.

Instagram can be an asset regardless of whether companies are working B2C or B2B, the important thing is that they have relevant image-based content to share. Images must be of interest to the target audience, otherwise Instagram won't fulfill its purpose and the effect can instead be negative.

Should you be on Pinterest?

Yes, if you have big visuals in your content. There’s a great demographic fit, too, for business that cater to women or brands that focus on categories like food or DIY.

Pinterest is billed as a content-sharing service that allows members to pin or post photos, videos, and other images to their pinboards.

The site, which has a predominantly female audience, is ideal for businesses for which visual imagery is a main feature or selling point. If you focus on wedding planning, travel destinations, interior decorating, fashion or foods, you can say a great deal about your products and services through your stunning photos or videos.

It’s perfectly okay to pick and choose which social networks you join. Small businesses may not be able to handle a consistent presence on four or more networks, so it’s helpful to step back, assess, and choose your best bets. Study the numbers, check for your audience, and ask yourself the important questions.

Measuring the Impact of Social Media on Your Business

1. Use goal-driven metrics. Set specific goals for each social media campaign and then develop metrics based on those goals. If a social media campaign is designed to generate brand awareness, then engagement is an appropriate metric. However, if a social media campaign is intended to drive purchase, then the conversion rate from visitor to buyer might be a more suitable metric. This insight may seem obvious but there is often a disconnect between goals and metrics.
2. Demonstrate metric validity. Metrics must be vetted to ensure they are valid—meaning they measure what they are designed to measure. For example, at what point should marketers classify a consumer’s interaction with a company on social media as “engagement”? Is it when a consumer likes or shares a post? Proving metrics requires linkages to key outcomes, customer interviews, and managerial judgment.
3. Uncover and verify leading indicators. Social media engagement, measured by the number of page views, click-throughs, comments, shares, and likes, is often used as a leading indicator of downstream sales outcomes. Identifying and tracking such leading indicators is valuable as companies can gain an early sense of how well their strategies will pay off.
4. Create dashboards. Most companies with a social media presence track metrics from multiple sources. As a result, it is helpful to create a social media dashboard that aggregates these different sources and shows a comprehensive view of the company’s or brand’s performance. A dashboard saves monitoring time and ensures that marketers have real-time access to how important metrics are trending.
5. Develop meaningful benchmarks. Comparing results to meaningful benchmarks provides important context when assessing the impact of social media campaigns. Building a database of social media campaigns and their corresponding outcomes enables your company to develop these benchmarks. Your agency may also be able to provide a broader view of these benchmarks if they have access to a range of campaigns from various companies.
6. Conduct experiments. To truly understand the impact of social media, companies must be willing to conduct experiments. Small experiments such as pre- and post-tests that measure consumer activity before and after a social media campaign are a useful way of assessing performance. Even better, include a control group that is matched on observable characteristics for comparison to the treatment group. For example, use geo-targeted social media in one city and compare results to a control-group city in which the campaign did not run.
7. Allocate funds to measurement. According to The CMO Survey, companies spend only 2.3% of their marketing budgets on measuring ROI. Measuring the impact of social media requires investing in metrics. This investment might include dedicated staff, agency partnerships, tools and technology, models, or customer databases.
8. Consider the cost of ignoring social media. One social media expert we interviewed offered the insight that the inability to perfectly measure social media’s return on investment (ROI) should not limit investments in it. Instead, he encourages his organization to also consider the Cost of Ignoring (COI) social media – “What is the cost to our business of ignoring this new platform?”
9. Build predictive models. Metrics are often used to analyze what has happened, but they also can be used to predict what is likely to happen depending on the tactics employed, such as spending levels and media placement. To gain the most out of your metrics, leverage them to build predictive models and then plug in different inputs to simulate possible outcomes.
10. Guide future actions. Measures should ideally be designed to offer developmental feedback. Ask yourself, if your social media campaign is not working, what information do you need to know in order to improve? Build your metrics or add additional metrics to capture this information so you know how to course correct and do better in the future.
11. Stick with your metrics. Vendors are constantly developing new tools to measure the impact of social media. Nevertheless, marketers should focus on utilizing a handful of tracking tools that fit their goals and have passed important validity hurdles. Be careful not to flit between different metrics as doing so will hinder learning and waste valuable resources.

Sources:

https://www.nibusinessinfo.co.uk/content/choosing-right-social-media-platforms

https://blog.bufferapp.com/how-to-choose-a-social-network

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/230020

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/232283

http://spoonagency.com/academy/company-use-instagram/

http://www.forbes.com/sites/christinemoorman/2015/01/18/measuring-the-impact-of-social-media-on-your-business/