Three reasons companies fear social media – and why they shouldn’t
New Marketing Labs hosted the Inbound Marketing Summit here in the Bay Area last week. As I was unfortunately unable to attend, I asked my marketing-savvy friend Jane McMurry to provide a recap of her experience there. What she found is that despite all of the proven results and case studies, companies are still fearing social media. She recaps why -- and explains why the fear is unnecessary. - J.L.
Guest editorial by Jane McMurry
Last week I attended the Inbound Marketing Summit in San Francisco put on by New Marketing Labs. It was a two-day event with a full agenda of speakers and panels. The summit was a mix of "A-list" experts in the blogosphere, companies with social media solutions and folks that have made a living at developing a personal brand. All their perspectives provided a deep dive into lessons learned and tools to use to jump start more innovative marketing programs.
During my conversations at the breaks and evening tweet-ups, I met attendees from all levels of the social media marketing. Surprisingly many were just dipping their toes in the social media ocean and were not even familiar with Twitter, didn't have a blog and were looking for tips to improve their companies' Web sites. The consistent concern I heard from these folks was confusion on where to begin. After listening to all the speakers/panels at the summit, there were three strong messages that addressed these fears and concerns.
1. Develop a clear social media strategy and plan It seems that most companies are automatically implementing a program on the four major social media avenues (blogs, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn) without first stepping back and seeing what makes sense to reach their customers. Social media is about relationships, so it is important to thoroughly understand their customer and what matters to them.
2. Criticism is an opportunity Like death and taxes, criticism is going to happen. Companies need to get past the fear of opening the dialog with customers. Social media is about listening, monitoring and responding. A company can't be in the reaction mode to all criticisms but instead be prepared and decide what the best listening tactics are and align them their strategy. As in any relationship building, it is important to pick your battles.
3. ROI metrics can be your friend Marketers are always challenged with justifying dollars spent and headcount to support the program. As with any relationship you can't always attach a dollar sign to it. There are many tracking methods to show the return but the largest proof point is the strength of the customer relationship and community built around a company and its product. A marketer not only needs to track the lead and sales but how the growth of the community and the strength in the voice of that community.
Social media is not a passing trend; these methodologies have taken the mom and pop store approach of building customer relationships to a new level. Companies of all sizes need to get past these fears, plan for success and in like any relationship is flexible when needed. It is time to throw away the old thinking of "what if", "what's in it for me" and "we always did it this way" and dive into that social media ocean. Like getting to know a new friend, you just might be pleasantly surprised what you discover along the way.
Jane McMurry has spent more than13 years as a marketing consultant in the high tech industry. Her Fortune 500 clients include HP, Apple, SAP, Sun Microsystems and Palm. Most recently, Jane was a core member of the corporate events group at Sun where she developed concepts and programs for large productions, integrating social media practices into program planning.