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| Is Business Compatible With Social Media? |
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| Dec 17, 2009 Published in the medium 2.0
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| Keywords: business, ROI, sales, social media
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 There is a prevailing idea that social media demands to be used in a particular manner. Social media purists argue that the integrity of the connections in an online social space must be preserved, businesses can participate but they must only, “participate in the conversation” and “talk with us not to us”.
For the purist these media are for individuals to engage with other individuals. There is even an idea that commerce will somehow defile the space. Yet, according to the Cone, Business in Social Media Study (2008) 93% of social media users believe that companies should have a presence in social media.
These attitudes are compatible. There is room in this online social space for many different types of engagement. Indeed, even excluding business from the equation there are many different ways that individuals use social media. Some keep their networks limited to those they know offline also, some collect followers industriously and some listen to a wide array but only communicate with a few.
It is businesses focus on the bottom line that will make sharing the social media space succeed. For businesses every action incurs a cost and that expenditure needs to provide a return to be viable. This idea of return on investment (ROI) is part of what scares the purists but it is also what will ensure that business uses social media in a way that respects the media involved.
It is difficult for businesses to effectively engage with social media without a defined aim, and participating in the conversation is hard to value on its own. There may be some benefits to simply showing up to the party but with a little planning before engaging the benefits can be more plentiful and more tangible.
The simplest use of social media for business is sales. Dell has made over three million dollars worth of sales through Twitter. That is a startling return and compares very well with EBay where they previously sold the same stock, as there are no listing fees on Twitter. Therefore, by cutting costs they gain a significant increase in their ROI.
For many companies this direct transaction through social media sites is not possible but they could use social networks to drive traffic to their key landing pages. This is the kind of traffic that is often generated through pay-per-click (PPC) advertising so again using social networks can make some quick savings. The success of this strategy can be easily tracked by measuring visitor referrals from the social networks. If the time is taken to dig a little deeper you can track the conversion rate of those coming to the sales site via social networks verses those coming via PPC.
The landing pages that a company might seek to drive traffic to can be more subtle too. Perhaps a company has a blog that is an effective engagement tool and that leads to sales by creating loyalty. In this case driving traffic to the blog could be very valuable to the company. As with the sales scenario this goal can be tracked using website analytics.
Social media for business is not just about driving sales customer service can be deeply valuable also and social media can be a very useful channel in this regard. JetBlue has been using social media to keep customers informed of travel delays on its routes and Pepsi (US) has had great success using social media as an addition to its toll-free telephone customer service line.
Measuring success is harder without a simple primary metric but it can still be done. For Pepsi they can judge the quality and volume of the feedback they are sent through social media. For JetBlue the measurements need to be more subtle but by measuring the usage of the service by customers they can get a clear idea of how the service is valued.
The reason the measuring ROI helps both businesses and social media purist is that it is a guide to what will work in social media. This allows the existing users a voice in how companies participate, albeit a passive one. It is in the interests of business to engage effectively and measuring success is the key.
Social media can be a complicated space but it can be both effective and efficient too. Defined goals are vital to avoid drowning in the conversations but the best route to the desired success is not always a straight line. One of the biggest advantages of working in this space is that if you listen to the community they will guide you, either directly by telling you what they want or by watching your key metrics.
If it is not working try a different approach and look for improvement. The space can be very fluid so you can judge the success of subtly different approaches in hours or days rather than weeks or months. While not everyone involved in social media is as vocal as the purists are they will give you some very powerful feedback as long as you have the landmark of your key goal to navigate by.
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