Well-defined goals help ensure social media successBuy This Photo
Photos by JOHN SLADEWSKI/The Standard-Times Social networking websites such as Facebook and Twitter have become integral parts of business marketing strategy. Leigh Dalton, baker at Emma Jean's Cupcake Factory & Ice Cream Shoppe, also handles updating the shop's Facebook page, which is also linked to Twitter. She photographs the boxed chocolate covered Oreos to post on Facebook.JOHN SLADEWSKIApril 01, 2012 12:00 AMPopular Today
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When Comcast was looking to decrease the number of customer service calls it was getting, it turned to Facebook to better engage with its customers.
When Giant Glass wanted to reach out to university students to expand its automotive glass market, it chose Twitter to help connect with them.
What works best about these strategies, according to local social media researcher Dr. Nora Ganim Barnes, is not the site chosen but the fact that both companies began by identifying their goals first and only then selected the best social media tool to use.
Many businesses try to do it the other way around, said Barnes, director of UMass Dartmouth's Center for Marketing Research.
"Everyone has it backwards asking, 'How can I use Facebook better?' " she said. Instead, "I ask 'What is it you want to do?' "
With the growing number of social media options available to small businesses, it's increasingly important for companies to know what they want to achieve before they start opening accounts. Doing anything else is a little like running around with a screwdriver in your hand, looking for something to fix, Barnes said.
"The goal is square one," she said. "Once you define those, then you start looking at the tools."
For example, Barnes said, it makes sense for some companies to establish the business as a thought leader in their industry. If so, she said, blogs are the tried and true method to do that.
"If your objective is to be a thought leader in your industry or to create a niche, I think that is the best tool to do it."
But for others, spending the resources on creating original blog content just doesn't make sense. Wal-Mart, for example, doesn't need or want to be a thought leader, said Barnes. It just wants to be known as having the best prices.
For Emma Jean's Cupcake Factory & Ice Cream Shoppe in Fairhaven, a social media strategy developed with SouthCoast Media Group digital consultants helped the business create a buzz that led to 500 Facebook "likes" by its grand opening in October and a line of customers that stretched around the building. The day was so successful that the bakery sold its entire stock of 700 cupcakes in the first three hours.
Social media "has helped me immensely," said Emma Jean's owner, Cathy Melanson, about the experience.
SouthCoast Media Group helped Emma Jean's build out social media pages with special features like a welcome screen and a custom profile image. One of the strategies the small business used was making a donation of $1 to the March of Dimes for every "like" that Emma Jean's received.
"Cathy worked with our Be Interactive package where our social media expert makes Facebook posts, tweets and writes a monthly blog on behalf of the business," said Meghan Feeney, Regional Digital Sales Manager for SCMG and Cape Cod Media Group. "She knew social networking would be too much to handle while she was focused on opening the business, so she relied on our team to make strategic posts on her behalf. Cathy and her staff also added some postings and fantastic pictures as the store was opening, in addition to the efforts of our social media team."
So while Emma Jean's is also on other social sites, Facebook continues to be its go-to tool for reaching cupcake fans.
Social media consultant Elizabeth Cincotta agreed with Emma Jean's strategy. Like Barnes, Cincotta believes using social media to achieve specific goals is important. It isn't necessarily the quantity of sites a business is on that works, she said, but the quality.
"I think it's important to know which ones work for your type of business and how to use (them) correctly," said Cincotta.
Cincotta is the social media consultant for The Celtic Coffee House in downtown New Bedford, where she has developed some creative options to help the business reach new and existing customers. One of these strategies uses the coffee house's Twitter account to let customers place orders for in-store pickup.
Cincotta also registered the business with KangoGifts.com, a Cambridge-based company that allows customers to purchase "microgifts" from vendors. For The Celtic Coffee House, that gift might be a cup of coffee or a muffin that gets delivered via text message to recipients. The text message acts as a virtual gift certificate to redeem the gift.
Both of these local businesses were looking to reach and engage customers with their social media efforts. That's one goal among many possibilities, and according to a recently released study by The Center for Marketing Research, the Inc. 500 firms surveyed said social media is important to them for several reasons, including enhancing reputation and brand awareness (90 percent of respondents), increasing web traffic (88 percent), and lead generation (81 percent).
The data came from the CMR study, authored by Barnes and fellow researcher Ava Lescault, that has tracked social media use among the Inc. 500 for the past five years. Thirty-four percent of Inc. 500 companies, the fastest-growing private companies in the U.S. as reported by Inc. magazine, participated in the survey.
This year, for the first time, some social media sites appeared to hit a plateau in terms of usage or even saw declines, according to Barnes. In contrast, new sites, like Twitter and LinkedIn, showed huge usage rates.
Fewer firms used blogging, for example, dropping from 50 percent the previous year to 37 percent, after having made steady annual gains in all previous reports.
"Blogging was the only game in town for a long time," said Barnes about the shift. "But it's no longer the first choice because it's not as fast and easy (as newer tools) and not everybody wants to be a thought leader in their industry."
In contrast, usage of tools like Twitter and LinkedIn, tracked for the first year, was much higher. The study found 74 percent of respondents used Facebook, 73 percent used LinkedIn, and 64 percent used Twitter.
From there, users dropped to 45 percent for YouTube and 24 percent for online video. At the bottom of the pack were podcasting, discount sites, and MySpace, all well below 10 percent.
While social media platforms are important, social media consultant and columnist for the New England Business Bulletin John Theriault strongly recommends that businesses also pay attention to the growing mobile media scene.
In addition to staking a claim for the company on sites like Google Places, Foursquare and others, Theriault suggests taking a look at the business' mobile site through the eyes of a customer. Make sure the site is easily accessed on mobile devices and tablets, he recommends, and make sure the kinds of information customers typically look for can be easily and quickly found.
"People use these sites from their phones to find businesses and information such as hours, phone number, services and menus, and more," Theriault wrote in this month's column. "Take the time to enter the information you know customers will be looking for when on the go."
If you don't know what your site looks like on a mobile device, Theriault suggests checking out a Google service called GOMO, which not only offers a mobile view but also has additional tools to help determine the site's effectiveness.
Like Barnes, Theriault advises knowing what you want to accomplish on mobile and talking to customers before investing in mobile advertising or creating an app for your business.
"We've seen a lot "vanity apps" that look nice but don't get much use," he wrote. "Make sure your customers will use and love it before spending the time and money."
Beth Perdue is the editor of the New England Business Bulletin. To read about these business topics and more, see the New England Business Bulletin on news stands this week. Or, go to www.nebulletin.com today. To subscribe to The Bulletin, email Kati Sorensen at ksorensen@s-t.com.
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Sunday, April 1, 2012
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