The Multiple Uses of Social Media
This week I will be discussing:
- why everyone should be using social media
- understanding how social media platforms are used by businesses
- the best ways to measure social media success
- the best practices on different platforms.
But first let's take a detour. How many of you use social media in the work place? And I'm not talking about work related social media but rather personal social media. I'm guilty of this and I see no problem with it.
Gary Vaynerchuck talks about how when we use social media in the workplace it ends up humanizing the company we work for. I personally don't talk about work because it might end up getting me in trouble since I work for the communications office. I can not speak my mind because the whole point of our office is to handle the public relations of UFHealth.
The HRexaminer talks about 8 Reasons Social Media Policies Backfire.
Besides violating the privacy rights of an employee, dictating what people do on social media can make a company lose its edge and can also make people lose a sense in time in this fast-paced twitter world we live in.
But how do businesses use social media? Do you or your business have a social media strategy? I don't have one and that is why I will be working towards one.
“You wouldn’t start an ad campaign without a strategy. You shouldn’t post on Facebook without one, either.”
In Scott Elser's article "Be Honest: Do You Have A Social Media Strategy? ", he explains that businesses should communicate with their customers where they already live and play because that will make them comfortable in bringing them back to the business. I really think is critical, I can see how it works on me whenever I see a post by Nasty Gal, a women's clothing company, on Facebook. I usually see a post that begs engagement from the audience and I immediately follow their link into their website. They came looking for me in my social media accounts to make me come back to their website. There are other companies however that have done terrible jobs at social media. My email would be blasted with their email campaigns about 3 times a day, which is enough for me to unsubscribe to their email updates.
Nasty Gal posts up their new arrivals a few times a week to get their customers to visit their website. They don't expect customers to visit them without any interaction in their social media.
This $240 million company really takes care of their authenticity on social media.
They connect with their customers on the Facebook page not as company but more as a human. Nasty Gal is not a person, it is a company, but through social media the brand becomes human.
