A study into the impact of social media as a business tool by global marketing services agency McCann Erickson last year demonstrated that almost two-thirds of marketing specialists (65.6 per cent) were not up to speed with social media or how it works as a marketing tool.
This is not a fad. Of those surveyed by McCann, 86 per cent of respondents realised that social media is here to stay and set to grow. It is also moving rapidly from private communication to a business tool. A year ago, few PR businesses quoted a Twitter or Facebook site address. Now, most do. They are at the cutting edge of the communications industry and where they lead, their clients will follow.
A change of corporate mindset is needed to gain advantage. The McCann survey points out that IT departments proactively block access to popular sites such as Facebook and Twitter in almost half of businesses, rendering staff incapable of monitoring what is being said about them.
Senior marketing people clearly lack understanding of social media and are consequently reluctant to apply its potential to their brands. For example, a total of 67.5 per cent of those surveyed thought that the sites were used more by the under-25s. However, according to figures from market researcher Nielsen, the age group making the most use of Twitter is 35-49-year-olds (which make up 42 per cent of traffic) and almost two-thirds of them only access it at work. Facebook figures show that 25-35-year-olds use the site as much as 16-25-year-olds.
Businesses already actively using social sites quote a number of benefits. The big one is PR and there is a fairly large use of advertising. Interestingly, surveys and trend analysis do not feature as a big purpose. That surprises me, because this has to be the best available form of free market research.
So what are the impacts of this? The first is that you can communicate far more frequently with customers than traditionally thought wise. The 2010 reality is that mobile phone calls, text messages, email and now social sites have made us communication junkies. Not only can you communicate more often, you should do.
The second impact relates to other media. The average family spends more time online than watching TV. At the same time, there is a rising generation who get their information via the net and never read a newspaper. Equally, there is a perception that using social sites may change the way we do business, with even fewer face-to-face meetings and phone calls.
Third, businesses will need to write properly. This might sound like professional snobbery, but so many businesses just cannot do it. Their communication is stilted, self-centred and dull. More than that, it would seem beyond their capabilities to write a fresh, interesting message once a week, never mind daily - but that’s the ask.
The potential to reach a massive audience at zero cost is definitely there. It is not easy because you are asking people to make an active choice to look at your posting - a very different proposition to seeing an ad in traditional media forms. You have to engage people’s interest with news, information, advice and, yes, entertainment. You cannot expect success from banging your advertising message home.
Twitter is essentially conversation, but it is perceived as having a business edge to it - it’s not just what Stephen Fry had for breakfast. First, you have to find people to follow (Twitter terminology for staying in touch with) who you hope will also follow you.
There is a free service that you are recommended to use, Twilerts. This sends you emails detailing any reference to your chosen keywords. You can have as many as you like, but make them specific - ‘fruit’ would inundate you. Have your local town as a keyword. This might generate a lot of dead information, but it would also give you a stack of contacts and, with intelligent use, opportunities.
Opinion was split on how social media impacts on traditional forms of communication, such as the telephone and face-to-face communications, with 48.2 per cent agreeing that this new form of keeping in touch has a negative impact on traditional communication methods, versus 51.8 per cent disagreeing.
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