Social Media and your business

This is not a new topic, but I was in a discussion recently about it and thought I would share my thoughts; social media has been around for most of history in one form or another. But I am focusing on current Internet-based social media for this post and to provide guidance on how to choose where your business might want to be. So, the general timeline starts with websites, then blogs, SecondLife, Facebook, LinkedIn, mySpace, flickr, Digg, YouTube, Twitter, and so many more in the mix. It's actually quite daunting if you sit down and try to figure out where you want to make a presence.

Let's start with the basics; most companies rely on an employee's experience to determine what forms of social media to use. The common thing you will hear is that the employee who is deciding to use social media for the company has an account on LinkedIn, they and/or their kids use Facebook and Twitter, and every competitor has a website. If the company isn't trying to sell products or services online, then a simple website to show information about the company is created; if the company wants to extend it's selling power to the web, then it will either employee an internal IT team or hire a 3rd party to create an e-commerce website. Then, someone creates an account LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter for the company, and works at maintaining it. Or for larger companies, they may have a dedicated person or team to manage these. I am not going to focus too much on IT infrastructure or security in this post, as they are really large topics I can cover later.

Website 101

A website is typically expected for any business; it doesn't matter if you are a Fortune 100 or a small pizzeria. The depth of the website really depends on your business and what you are trying to convey to current and potential customers. As I noted, if you have no interest to sell anything, you should at least have a website that explains what your company does, offerings of your company, and how potential customers, suppliers, partners, etc. can get in touch with you. For example, if you are a medical manufacturer that only sells directly to suppliers, you may just want to have a basic site that explains what you make, about your company, and how a potential supplier could get in touch with you. For a smaller business, such as a restaurant, you would want to describe your restaurant and food, and if you don't want to offer an online reservation system (maybe you are a pizza and sub shop), then at least have your menu posted so people can get an idea of what you offer and can make the process of reviewing a menu at the restaurant less daunting.

If you want to sell things online, then you will want an e-commerce website. Maybe you are into specialty crafts, so a site like Etsy or eBay would be more than sufficient for handling your needs. Or maybe you are trying to be the next Amazon and need a powerful and separately hosted e-commerce site. For the smaller companies, you can probably get away with setting up the site yourself on a per-canned hosting site; for the crafting example I mentioned Etsy or eBay. There are many other sites such as GoDaddy where you can get a Web 2.0 template that you customize and set everything up yourself. If you are a bit larger, then you will either want an IT staff that can handle this or you will want to contract out to a 3rd party.

Internet Social Sites-A-Plenty

This post would be too long if I went into detail on each service out there. Therefore, I am going to post some guidelines and you will have to do the leg work...or you can send me a message and we can talk. Basically, you need to know the type of audience you want for your business. I am going to bring back the Etsy example again, because it's a great example of a niche place for typically smaller businesses or hobbyists to sell their goods. People go to this site, which is very popular, knowing what Etsy is about.

Another example is that your company has products and services they sell, and want people to get excited about new offerings. One option is creating a Facebook site. This allows people to Like your site and get word out about your company and offerings. You can easily get feedback and opinions without even having to do focus groups. Please note that focus groups are still important depending on what you are trying to sell or produce.

Yet another example is that you are a company in the music or entertainment arena. Sites like the re-designed mySpace are great sites. And don't forget that Twitter is still extremely popular to use; especially for getting out bursts of news. Examples relating to this would be new artist releases, upcoming gigs, trends in the industry, and more.

Whatever you choose, make sure you do your research before just diving in. Although Twitter is popular, it may end up being a bad solution for your company. Or maybe Facebook would be a poor choice, but LinkedIn would be perfect. There are so many factors to consider.

Why Not to be Social

I am not going to imply that a company not getting into social media is hiding something. However, social media can be a blessing or a nightmare for a company. For example, if your company doesn't have much of a social media presence, and let's say there is a recall on one of your products, the buzz may not be as severe as if you had been in many social media arenas. However, if you were in the various social arenas, you may have more of a voice on the matter and you will be able to get a quicker idea of public opinion on the situation. This is one of the most important things to consider before divings into social media.

As a parting note, I love social media for the pure marketing and viral aspects of it. But be careful, social media should never be taken lightly in the decision making process.