People, by nature, are quick to jump on the bandwagon, as it were. If the bandwagon is all about fun and entertainment there is usually no harm in it; however, when it comes to business, there is a good chance that business owners can hurt their own interests by misusing new means of promotion and marketing. This is doubly true when it comes to social media.
It is very important to understand the mindset of the users of social media services. The overwhelming majority of users are not there to do business or to participate in commerce in any shape or form—they are there for connecting with friends (and strangers), and for entertainment. Understanding this is crucial in having a successful social media initiative. Often, companies will look for newer and cheaper ways of promoting their products or services without realizing the damage they can end up doing by misunderstanding fundamentals of a new medium. Let’s confine our discussions to Twitter, since it is the newcomer in the social media arena. Most inexperienced users (marketers) will inevitably end up using Twitter to ‘talk’ about their product or services (which is fine), but will fail to ‘listen’ to what is being said about them, when listening is supremely more important than talking. Let’s review a simple example. A hosting company has just discovered Twitter, and wants to utilize it as a means of marketing. The first thought that pops into the marketers head is “I need to have a lot of followers, so that I can send them offers.” Though this may be the right mindset when sending out flyers or email offers, it is not the right approach when it comes to social media.
One of the best known ‘laws’ of business is the fact that it costs a lot more (you can pick your multiplier) to earn a new client than to keep an existing one. This law should automatically dictate listening as opposed to talking when it comes to Twitter and promoting your business. Listen to what people are saying about you. Is someone complaining about your hosting service? Reply to them. Find out what their issue is, and resolve it! Social media is about word-of-mouth, and that satisfied customer will do more for you than any discount offer will. So, listen first, and then talk. But what should you say?
To figure out what you need to be saying you should understand that most people are on Twitter to socialize and to be entertained—they are not there to be sold a widget (don’t be a telemarketer). The only people who think about business when they use twitter are other business people trying to figure out how to extract value from the social media phenomenon. So what is business person to do? Innovation and the willingness to establish a less rigid business culture (at least publically) are the basics one needs to succeed in social media marketing.
Volumes can be written about this topic; however, each company/business has to find their own innovative approach to benefit from the true value of social media (or hire someone knowledgeable to do it for them).