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[S656]Social Media Conference 2009

by Southern Sun Southern Sun, Sou

There are loads of terms that are being flung around at the moment - Web2.0, New Media, Social Media, User Generated Content. It's hard to keep up with all the ways that we as citizens of the web can operate online.
The playground of Social Media is so diverse that it can all get a little overwhelming. With new sites being launched weekly it can at times be a little hard to keep up with it all. In this the first of a five part series on Social Media you will discover what exactly Social Media is, how it evolved and why it has become such an invaluable personal and marketing tool.

The Evolution of Social Media

By the end of this five part series you should be navigating this topic with ease. But let's start off by learning a bit more about the rise of what has become known as consumer generated media and how it has marked the shift in the way we use the Internet.
The Internet and the software which has been developed to run on it has made it so simple for anyone to publish content and make this content accessible to millions of people. In effect, consumers have been given a voice to air their views to a massive audience. Long gone are the days when the Internet was merely for research, company websites and porn :) ... today the Internet is for every single one of its users - we can contribute, we can share our thoughts, our videos, our resources - in short we, as a people are shaping what is out there and no voice goes unheard.

Online conversations are taking place every day in the form of consumer generated media and while PR has traditionally focused on the media as written by journalists, the most trusted sources for modern consumers are ordinary people reporting their experiences. In a survey by Forrester Research, 25% of consumer respondents said they trusted the opinions of fellow consumers above all other forms of media referral or advertising. According to Edelman's latest Trust Barometer the most credible source of information about a company is... "a person like me".

It is for this reason that engaging in Social Media can be highly beneficial to both individuals as well as companies.

Social Media

Wikipedia defines Social Media as "the online technologies and practices that people use to share content, opinions, insights, experiences, perspectives, and media themselves."
In recent years there has been the massive growth of blogs, wiki's, podcasts, social networking sites and moblogs - together they form what is loosely known as Social Media; the ability for anyone to publish almost any content without the typical costs and hindrances associated with traditional media. This new publishing freedom has resulted in an explosion of new content.
We see more and more instances of Social Media becoming integrated in the traditional media landscape. Journalists are blogging, YouTube and Facebook are making the newspaper headlines and several television adverts are examples of CGM to mention but a few.

This new media is enveloping traditional media and borders are becoming hazy - in short a new challenge for media professionals has begun.
Over the last few years hundreds of Social Media type websites have been launched and over the next few weeks we will be looking into these various types as well as the major players within each field:
•Photo Sharing
•Video Sharing
•News Sharing
•Social Networks
•Blogging
•Forums

The Benefits of Social Media

•Social Media tends to have more of an impact amongst those who have become quite numb to traditional advertising. They choose to engage with your advertising when it is done in the Social Media landscape while they are merely exposed to it in the traditional media environment.
•Social Media's potential to go viral is one of its greatest benefits - if users like the content they will share it with their own communities.
•Social Media allows you to create an online community for your brand and its supporters.
•Social Media can tie in nicely with any of your other online marketing tactics - a holistic eMarketing strategy is always the best strategy.
•Social Media allows you to engage with an online community and allows you to connect your brand to the appropriate audience.
•Social Media has created a forum for brand evangelists. Companies should embrace as well as monitor this as users with negative opinions of your brand have access to the same forum.
•The various platforms allow you to access a community with similar interests to your own - networking without borders.
•The numerous interactions allow you to garner feedback from your communities.
•Feedback from Social Media sites helps drive both future business as well as marketing strategies.
•The range of media enables you to learn more about your audience's likes, dislikes, behaviour etc. Never before has this much information been available to marketers - market research just got a whole lot cheaper.
•Niche targeting just got a whole lot easier!

As with all consumer generated media there are huge risks as well as opportunities. Social Media facilitates a two-way conversation between customer and company. This necessitates that the company shifts approach from "deploy and watch" to one of constant involvement with the audience.

Meanwhile, marketers are running around trying to get in on the bandwagon which, without proper consideration, may not even take them anywhere.

I can just imagine the water-cooler moment with two marketing heads talking about how amazing it is that Facebook has grown so fast, before immediately deciding that they need a corporate Facebook page. A month later, they're starting a Twitter account and presenting to their bosses about how they're at the forefront of digital.

Fools rush in

While this ‘social media strategy' may get them a pat on the back, it rarely results in any genuine business success, neither does it really represent any form of strategy. However, you could argue that the only thing wasted is a bit of time, so it's not a huge problem. This is true only until we realise how significant the gain may have been – as which point the opportunity cost becomes quite significant.

The problem arises from today's action-led corporate world, where we are obsessed with all things ‘doing'. What we're doing, what we've done and what we're going to do. As long as we're doing, our salaries are safe.

Sit quietly and listen...

When developing a social media strategy, try a different approach. Just this one time, park being proactive and instead, realise it's ok to not know what you're supposed to do. Only with this mindset will you be able to extract from the new and exciting world of social media the real value. After all – this is not an arena for you to flex your corporate biceps, but rather to sit quietly. Listen. Absorb. Consider.

When search marketing started booming, it was a revolution. Representing ‘pull marketing', search allowed companies to target active consumers who were genuinely ‘in the market'. As the consumers were in charge, they didn't mind being fed messages by companies trying to bid for their business as they had, in fact, requested it. This happy relationship meant we could all go about our business, lining the pockets of Google.

The mindset of a social surfer is entirely different. They're not calling your customer service centre or placing an order online, they're just chatting. It just so happens that the online world is so transparent, you know exactly what they're chatting about. Whilst the ‘doing' urge might be strong, it would be rude to barge in.

Design a considered response

The first problem is that consumers are bored of companies trying to sway their opinion. And to be fair, you can see why, given that an average person is exposed to 1000s of marketing messages each and every day.

The second problem is that a company's urge to ‘do something' often results in a defensive approach, rather than a creative one. My favourite example is from EA Sports, who responded to a video posted by a customer on YouTube.

The ‘Jesus Shot' showed Tiger Woods being able to walk on water due a bug in the PGA Tour 2008 EA Sports game. Clearly a glitch, a natural response would have been to run off and try to fix it for the next release. Perhaps communicate with the poster about the fix, send him a free game as a thankyou for his feedback, and assume you've correctly leveraged ‘social' to its full potential.

EA took a different tack, using this feedback to create a reply which has now been viewed over 3 million times. Had EA not tracked the space with such an open and creative mindset, this initiative would never have occurred, and their brand would have been interacted with 3 million times less.

Let the consumers take the lead

The first thing you need to do is simply to start tracking. There are a number of paid tools you can subscribe to, although many will be too expensive for non blue chip companies. However, there are other few tools you can use, or get your agency to start tracking this for you.

At the very least, you should set up some Google Alerts for your company name, your competitors, and indeed the core terms relating to your market and offering. Make a list of some of the key sites you know where people discuss what you offer and check them regularly.

Check in on Facebook every now and then to see if there are any groups which related to what you do, hunt out relevant blogs, track the twitter space closely to get a feel for the zeitgeist of your industry – immerse yourself in your consumers.

Know your audience

With the correct systems in place, it's possible to learn more about your audience than ever before. What they like, what they hate, what they tell their friends and what they fear. Intelligent, considered and creative analysis of what you find can lead you down many a road which you had not even considered.

As I said – it's ok to not have a social media strategy just yet. In fact, I think that's the whole point...

Article Source : How To Configure Networking

About Author

Both Southern Sun Southern Sun & Andrew Atalla are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.

Southern Sun Southern Sun has sinced written about articles on various topics from Adventure Travel, Health and Christmas Gifts. include SEO, PPC, Affiliate Marketing, Online Reputation Management and WebPR.. Southern Sun Southern Sun's top article generates over 301000 views. to your Favourites.

Andrew Atalla has sinced written about articles on various topics from Networking, PPC Advertising and Internet Marketing. Andrew Atalla is the founder of atom42, a London . atom42 employs a range of marketing fields to create an integrated online marketing strategy for e. Andrew Atalla's top article generates over 720 views. to your Favourites.