Making a case for social media in small(er) businesses

Few small business owners and entrepreneurs have the bandwidth or the budget to launch a full scale marketing campaign. Combine this with a lack of the critical mass in terms of audience so frequently associated with the medium to large organisations / brands, and it almost seems hopeless to try and compete.

However, with the dawn of the digital age and the rise of social media platforms and opportunities, the sky has quite literally become the limit. It is no longer just about having the traditional above-the-line campaigns spanning across radio, TV and print, but about creating an online brand presence, about having a conversation, about listening and responding in real time to customers, potential customers and even potential detractors.

We believe that a truly successful social media strategy is one that is not based on talking to every man, but developing a specific and personal customer and audience experience.

There is no doubt that the current platform of choice for a two way, tailored communications experience online, is Facebook. And more specifically, the Facebook Fan Page as the first line of communication for an organisation.

Using Starbucks, as an example of a brand with one of the most successful Fan Pages, we have created a set of top tips and considerations, for maximising impact and delivering value, for a company of any size.

1. Know your brand personality – who are you, how do you engage, what is the ‘language’ and tone that you use when interacting and ensure that this resonates across all your audience interactions
2. Know your audience – who are you talking to, what makes them tick, what kind of information do they use and re-use, who do they talk to and about what
3. Don’t SPAM – instead of putting out marketing collateral, share content that is industry, topic and of audience interest and relevance
4. Make time – to post relevant information, to respond to comments and queries posted to your Fan Page and to really get under the skin of your audience
5. Listen – to the conversations not only on your Fan Page, but on other blogs, newsfeeds and Facebook Fan Pages and ensure that when you do respond, it isn’t mid-stream or out of context

Once you have these five elements buttoned down, Facebook has made it ridiculously easy to set up a Fan Page. Go to the Facebook login page, click on ‘Create a page for a celebrity, band or business’ and follow the step-by-step guide to setting up your page and gaining access to more than 500 million people around the world.

Your challenge – to sift through these more than 500 million people and make sure the right people become your ‘fans’.

And unlike traditional above-the-line advertising, which can sometimes feel like a bit of a hit and miss approach to reaching your target audience, Facebook advertising is audience customisable. By deploying a customised advertising campaign, you are able to eliminate what marketing and advertising folks call ‘wastage’, resulting in a more cost effective and tangible campaign.

Engage, interact and enjoy!

The rise of social media (and the demise of the microsite)

In today's times we need to start making life simpler, not more complicated, sometimes less is more, especially when communicating to consumers. Is there still a place for the "microsite" in today's world? Predictions are that the microsite is dying a slow and painful death. How’s that possible? Aren’t microsites the defacto standard for “getting bang for your buck” in the online world? They certainly have become the standard approach to get and give consumers “all the information they need” in today’s marketing landscape. And there are some great examples. Really cool ones. But at best they have a finite life and very often the brilliant content they house is simply ditched as the campaign comes to an end. Social media profiles and Facebook Pages in particular, provide a very viable and long-term alternative to brands paying R100 000 (plus) a pop, for a fancy life-limited flash microsite that when built, does not magically attract thousands to visit it. So why then is social media such a real and viable alternative? 1. You won’t lose your brand identity and audience engagement You spend significant corporate energy on positive brand perception and awareness. And then you start over completely from scratch with an entirely new brand or product. Why? If you are reaching an entirely different audience and your current brand would be confusing, then you may in fact want to build out a new brand, however, in that case, you probably won’t be launching a microsite, you’ll launch a full site. In most cases, microsites are subsets of, or promotions for the main site, with exactly the same audience. Do you really want to work at building up multiple brand identities? And do you really not want to benefit from the brand building in one category for another related category? 2. You won’t lose the ability to leverage your audience By way of example, you launch an awesome site with a fantastic user experience, great products, and unrivaled customer support. Someone writes up a positive article about you in say, the Business Times. Readers start clicking over to your site. They see you sell running shoes. They just read about how great you are, so they feel confident about purchasing some products from your site. But maybe those same readers also need some clothes to go running in. If you had a separate runningclothes.com microsite, you’ve just missed a great opportunity to reach a targeted and motivated audience. 3. You won’t have to double your resources The microsite will use the same template and content management system. So it seems like a low overhead to maintain it . But wait, as you build out the content of both sites, you have to decide which content to put where and decide how to spend marketing, PR and advertising resources. When you issue a press release, which site do you talk up? All of them? What if you have 20? And you are likely doing social media too. Do you now maintain 20 Facebook pages and 20 Twitter accounts? If you have built the microsite specifically for an advertising campaign, what happens when the campaign is over? Do you maintain the site? Abandon it? Take it down? This question gets more complicated if the microsite included a social networking element. You’ve gotten your audience engaged... oh now you need to dump them. 4. You can keep your consumer (and fans) engaged for the long term The rise of the microsite has left a great big graveyard of micro sites in its wake. Many filled with brilliant content, discarded as campaigns come to an end. The beauty of social media as a platform is that you have a springboard for future campaigns that does not require any media spend, you have a ready made audience who have interacted with your brand in the past. Most of the functionality that we see in microsites can be built into a Facebook page where once you have an interaction it is likely that you will acquire a new fan who is not just a fan of your new campaign but a fan for the long term if you treat them well, and if you do it right, that fan will bring with them their own network of friends. And as for video - rather than let it fall into a big black hole why not house it within your Facebook Page. This way your fans can access it whenever they need it and your messages keep spreading rather than just being campaign based. Social media is changing how we market. Creating long term content hubs through social media using interactivity as a point of initiation, is a real and viable alternative – and also happens to tell the consumer ”everything they need to know”. Only it is not as capital intensive as a micro site and can last in perpetuity! Which route would you want to follow as a brand with a view of keeping fans engaged in the long term?