Plan ahead for social media results
Plan ahead for social media results
So how big has social media become? Check out these numbers.
• As of March 2012 Facebook had over 901 million users worldwide.
• As of February 2012 Twitter has over 500 million users worldwide.
• As of April 2012 Google + has over 170 million users worldwide.
• Out of the 6 billion people on the planet, 4.8 billion have a mobile phone and only 4.2 billion own a toothbrush. (Just threw that in there for fun)
To put it in perspective, Russia has a population of over 142 million (census 2010), Brazil has 190 million (census 2010), and the United States has of over 313 million.
The growth of social media has been unstoppable. How many times do you walk down the street or stroll through the airport and see people staring at their smartphones or iPads? More often than not, they are posting photos via Instagram to Facebook or glancing at their Twitter feeds to keep tabs on what’s going on. To be sure, these technologies are having at least some impact on the way we conduct business.
The cynic in me says that social media is just another diversion and a way to occupy time. But in reality, social media is having a significant impact on the business world:
• 56 percent of consumers say that they are more likely recommend a brand after becoming a fan
• 34 percent of marketers have generated leads using Twitter
• 30 percent of B2B marketers are spending millions of dollars each year on social media marketing
But simply arranging for your company to have a Twitter account or a Facebook page doesn’t cut it. Before jumping on the bandwagon companies need to ask themselves, “what are we trying to accomplish by leveraging social media tools?” Is it a lead generation tool or a customer service portal? Are the lines of communication within the company designed to troubleshoot customer problems immediately before they snowball into a PR nightmare? Does customer feedback get routed to the product development team? Does any of the information bubble up to the executive team?
If you don’t think these issues are real, go ahead and ask United Airlines how they felt about the “United Breaks Guitar” fiasco. Better yet, read this brief article titled “Why Social Media Means Customer Service can Make or Break your Brand” to get a better understanding of the impact that customer feedback can have. Better yet, work with a strategic communications firm to develop and implement a well thought out social media strategy instead of simply opening a Twitter account. Remember, just like the man said, “Question: When did Noah build the ark? Answer: Before the flood.”
Author: Rob Goodman
Rob Goodman is a communications professional with more than 27 years of experience in public relations, marketing and content creation.