9 June 2009 - 10:50Social Media – Friend, Foe, or just another arrow in your marketing quiver?

Seems like marketers are all a-twitter about social media these days. Is social media a threat to companies, a place where customers and employees can voice their dissatisfaction of poor quality, poor customer service, and corporate arrogance? Or is it an opportunity for companies to spread the news about new products, new services, and a forum to respond to consumers perceptions of how well they are being serviced by these companies?

It is probably all of the above. Take customer feedback. Large corporations used to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on research to discover what consumers thought of as a product or service. The explosion of Consumer Generated Media (CGM) has allowed consumers a constant dialog on how well they are being served by companies. This has prompted companies like Domino Pizza, who was damaged by the release of disgusting video on You Tube by a couple of employees, to take notice of the importance of social media and proactively to take action to satisfy consumer demands. See social-media-baptism-for-dominos-pizza/
Companies like Southwest Airlines, Volvo, and Intuit have established their own Twitter and Facebook accounts to not only monitor the daily buzz from their consumers, but to also use this media as a part of a larger marketing campaign. Volvo is promoting its new XC60 through snail mail, email, web site, and YouTube, but also directing visitors to the Volvo Twitter page where consumers can comment and follow the activities of Volvo.

While large B2C companies will no doubt take the lead on using social media to monitor consumer response, amass fans to its brand, and use as an extension of traditional marketing efforts, smaller companies, and B2B companies will, I believe, find relevance in this social media space and use it to maintain customer loyalty and enhance their corporate brands.

Before you Tweet, do a little research:
1.    Search your own company on Google Search to see if there are any unsolicited comments about your company.
2.    Search www.twitter.com for your products, your services, your competition, and your market keywords.
3.    Do the same on www.facebook.com and www.linkedin.com
4.    Register on some of these social media networks. Post information that you would only want the public to see and keep it professional.
5.    User names on social networks are very much like domain names, so grab your company name and main keywords now, before it is too late.

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