Social Media

Social media on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, Linkedin, TikTok, Instagram and many other micro publishing formats has evolved at a pace over the last 15 years or so.  As a web based business we can help you pick and choose the best places for your inputs / content to be seen and heard. 

Social is an ever changing sector and algorhythms and fashion and even ownership changes and astro-turfing by bots can change the impact and reach of any activity in this space. Who even remembers Orkut or Google Wave or even Google Plus? At the time of writing it looks like Twitter is having some kind of extended meltdown. I personally hope it survives but Mastodon is a much healthier social forum at the present time. 

Much of the social media stream comes from individuals and the private / public personas tend to overlap and blur as individuals have conversations in public about whatever they are interested in. That is the challenge and the opportunity right there. We can choose to just listen, to engage and to take part in a dialogue where the usual PR rules don’t really apply.

What customers want is authenticity and real engagement so social channels especially twitter get used to escalate customer service issues and raise other points. Corporates tend to think of social as a broadcast channel and that doesn’t work.

Like anything new the use of social media content has already gone through several evolutions and stages of development. In our view social is best when it is used as a conversation point to engage with customers, suppliers and other stakeholders.

What the marketing manager wants is for all social content to lay a trail of useful and meaningful content that will connect with potential and existing customers and lead back to the branded online content for your business.

There is a fine line between signal and noise and there are many ways that social media can be used. In the early phase many users go on broadcast mode and pump out a stream of links and notes that may not be that appealing. Like anything else – there is a learning curve and what works for you may not be suitable for all types of businesses.

We are sometime asked by clients if they should auto link their Facebook, Twitter and email streams. Yes it is possible to automate the links between each of the social streams but that doesn’t make it a good idea.

The best  content from your business is content that builds your brand and shows off your brand values in a way that can seed conversations that will generate marketing leads for your sales team.

We manage the social media profiles of a number of businesses and we can do the same for you. Ask us to recommend a social media strategy and to develop a plan for you.

If you don’t have time to implement that plan we know the best people and the best teams to help you. Have conversations that matter.