@AlexanderGBell: Hey @Watson. Come Here #INeedYou
Little over 125 years ago small business owners around the world were debating the merits of a new technology that was heralded as a revolutionary tool that would change the business world forever. With this new tool marketing, customer service—and most importantly, sales—would occur at lightning speed. As such, entrepreneurs were scrambling to get their hands on this miraculous service called the telephone.
These days the desktop telephone has passed beyond common and is now the grandfather of corporate communication in most businesses—at least those that have finally given up on the fax machine. But in companies large and small “social media” has taken the place of the telephone (and more recently, the Internet) as the revolutionary business tool du jour—it's even been called the "new telephone"--and experts believe it's here to stay.
“We’re just at the very beginning of the social era,” says Jeremy Goldman, a marketing consultant and the author of Going Social who predicts that in years and decades to come “social” will grow beyond a marketing tool to become critical to all aspects of business, from customer service to recruiting to sales lead generation. “It’s so new that everybody is looking t jump on board with every platform available to them right now,” he say pointing to Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest as the front-runners. “But as the technology matures we’ll see some of the noise and excitement die down as businesses put different aspects of social to use.”
Which is all fine and good—and actually kind of exciting in a brave new world kind of way--but for today’s business owners and entrepreneurs looking to make the best use of what’s available, it begs the question: now what? Does every business need a social media strategy? Can a Twitter really drive revenue? And right at the top of every founders list: do I really have to hire a professional to get this done?
Yes and No. We put Goldman to the task of helping founders strategize social media—from choosing the channels to hiring the right person for the job.
No. 1 Does social media even make sense for my [software, catering, consultant, plumbing, consumer package goods] business?
“Every business is jumping into the pool of social media,” Goldman says. “And as a result, it’s becoming harder and harder to justify staying out.” But just because a new social network exists doesn’t mean it’s right for every company. Goldman advises that founders and business owners think of the social media toolset as more of a wading pool than an Olympic plunge.
“It’s wrong to say that every company should be diving into social media on all levels,” he says, “But it’s fair to say that most every business can benefit from using social on some level.” In other words, your insurance agency might not benefit from a Twitter campaign shouting discounts, but your sales force might benefit from communicating in a Facebook group or sharing strategies over Google+. The decision then, isn’t whether social media can benefit your company but how it can benefit specific aspects of your business.
No. 2 Okay, so what am I hoping to accomplish?
A social media strategy is only as good as the mission it’s tailored to, he says. Conversations are best facilitated on Facebook, for example, where Twitter is great at collecting followers or, for many companies, as a place for customer service reps and clients to engage in real time. “It’s all about identifying the business objectives that are important to your company’s growth and thinking about how social can help to reach that goal.”
No. 3 Do I already know what to do?
Millennials now comprise some 37% of the workforce and an even larger percentage of the startup superstars in entrepreneurial hotbeds in New York and California. And Millennials, by and large, grew up with technology and are fluent in the many languages of social media. Depending on the demographic of your workforce, you may employ all of the social media strategists you’ll ever need.
No. 4 I don’t. So do I need to hire a professional?
“It really depends,” Goldman says, pretty honest for someone in the business of selling his expert services to companies as small as Kiehl’s and as large as Unilever. “The question every leader should be asking is how valuable is it to get the social media campaign right the first time?” Not such a big deal? Training junior employees to manage company feeds might get the job done. But if the goal is a crowd-sourced product launch and vendor contracts hang in the balance, it might be time to rbing in a professional.
“It’s one of those situations where you get what you pay for,” he says, pointing to the various file sharing services for illustration. “You can use Box for free and for a lot of companies, they only need that basic storage. Box is better and has more capabilities but it will cost a few hundred bucks.”
No. 5 Okay, fine. But do I know if she’s worth her salt?
Nobody graduates college with a bachelor’s degree in Twitter, but Goldman says there are sure-fire ways to identify a qualified social media consultant over Jenny from Long Island who decided PR wasn’t right for her. “Challenge them off the bat with the goal you’re hoping to accomplish,” he says—and then ask them to prove (in numbers!) how they’ve accomplished it before. It won’t offend them, he says, any social media professional who’s worth your startups hard-earned cash will be more than happy to open up the books.
“I’ve found that anyone who’s willing to provide metrics of their campaigns success is generally telling the truth,” Goldman says. Social media numbers (whether number of followers accrued, comments received or click-through rates) are easy to prove or disprove so potential hires aren’t likely to fudge.
In his role as a consultant he says he often has to answer these questions for potential clients—and is happier to do it before he’s hired than after the fact. “We’ve got a client who’s developing a real-time event and they want us to work on it. We’ve done similar projects before, so it’s a great fit, but I’m really happy they asked us to prove it because one thing’s for sure, not all social media skills are the same.”
