So, new website – check: product launch date – check: customers – check: sales plan – check: social media strategy – well nearly. Like many technology suppliers  we have been grappling with the thorny problem of how to embrace social media in it’s many iterations and of course how to get the best out of it. So this is what I have gleaned so far – forgive me if it is rather basic but like me you have to start somewhere.

Social Media is the fastest growing communications revolution of all time and this phenomenal growth is reflected by it’s use by billions of people daily. It provides the tools for a massive marketing initiative that will find new audiences for your products and services. Commercial organisations now have an opportunity to extend their reach to a global audience through the adoption of these tools.

Put simply, Social Media enables a dialogue supported by online tools like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Flickr, Skype and a host of others that connect people throughout the world.  It will also provide you with the links to complementary marketing vehicles such as the 100,000,000 blogs posted daily (source: technorati, State of the Blogosphere).

Social media and marketing are a natural partnership. Social Media Marketing (SMM) is the process of promoting your business through social media channels and it is a powerful strategy that, if correctly executed, will provide you with a significant increase in the attention of your target market. Also known as social influence marketing it is the act of using social influencers, social media platforms, and on-line communities for marketing, public relations and customer service. It is a low-cost, high impact initiative and a successful campaign will drive large numbers of visitors directly to your ‘shop window’. For any company selling products or services, SMM is a potent method  for exposing your proposition to a global market place.

Social Media is about people connecting with one another to drive ideas and innovation. For example, someone on the other side of the world with a specific issue relating to their business can now easily connect with experts to get answers  to address their issue.  It provides a virtual meeting place similar to a trade show where you  can ‘set up shop’ in one place and meet prospective customers and other market influencers.

The  natural starting point for using this medium within your organisation is by ‘listening’ to social media activity that pertains to ‘keywords’ around your business. For example if you are  currently interested in “mobile web”, Twitter and LinkedIn  will throw up a huge amount of subject discussion. Unless your brand is genuinely well known do not expect there to be a great deal of discussion specific to your own brand initially because you will need to attract and engage your audience to build your community. However, there are currently over 45 million LinkedIn business users, 300 million Facebook users and 23 million visitors to Twitter every month (source: compete.com) so the audience is already there for you. For effective use of this medium you will need to assess who your audience is, design an engagement strategy and begin the process of communication with your customers. Keep things simple at first and set-up personal accounts on the networking sites to get yourself started. Then start the traffic by initiating conversations and at the same time familiarise yourself with the language of social media.

Innovative and relevant content, such as regular editorials, will be essential to the success of your campaign. Effective content will be recommended by your readership to their group of online friends and propagated across the internet and should provide the catalyst for people to talk about your company and its people. You will also need to decide how you are going to promote your social media campaign and content. Start by assessing which social networking tools  you will initially use – aim for sites with larger volumes of users. Be specific about who you are creating content for and ensure it is relevant to the group that you are targeting. Campaign engagement will come in a range of formats; a comment on a blog, viral distribution of your content, a vote for your content or a submission to a social bookmarking site are all positive signs that traction has been gained.

A successful social media campaign will provide your company with a highly effective marketing platform for your value proposition enabling you to develop your products in line with market needs. Cost reductions in the areas of support and recruitment are also associated benefits.  A competitive market place will mean that your competition may well be beginning to execute their social media strategy and today’s early adopters could well evolve into tomorrow’s leaders. The reach, influence and insight that social media engenders is already delivering significant and tangible benefits to innovative organisations.

Anyway, that’s the story so far – Mobestar has an evolving social media strategy that is working for us – it’s providing us with leads that are turning into customers that are turning into to revenues – and it’s free.  So avoid the guru (http://bit.ly/Qd30Y),  this is the wild west – just get on with it.

Posted by Peter Richards October 19th