Twitter? Facebook? What is your web strategy?
April 17th, 2009 by Bret
Sometimes it’s hard to separate the signal from the noise. We get that. Technology is constantly changing at a rapid pace and what’s this week’s hot new tool for marketing your business may be entirely different than last week’s (or more likely, it’s a different representation of the same thing from last week).
When presented with all of the new hotness that you’re told to use by numerous pundits on all things technically hot, it’s important to look at your business model, your customers and your overall web strategy and decide whether or not it’s a good fit. Sure, Twitter is a great tool for concise and quick updates and sharing of information, but are your customers likely to have Twitter accounts? Are they likely to want to follow you? Have you created a compelling reason for them to follow you?
The new business model as it relates to newer Internet technologies requires a certain amount of transparency with your business, and if you are not prepared to offer up some of that transparency (let your customers get to know you, to see inside, even to take part in making product and service decisions) and also to keep those updates flowing, chances are Twitter may be relegated to your hallway closet, along with that old Thighmaster and those dusty old LPs.
The same goes for social networking platforms like Facebook, MySpace and even LinkedIn. Make sure you are prepared to take on the extra time and labor commitment necessary to keep those profiles updated and keep in touch with your customers.
Your best strategy is to have a strategy for your online presence. Find out about your customers, figure out your business needs and see where they intersect with available web technologies and trends. Taking a broad overview of such needs and capabilities can help you focus your energy and decide what options are most crucial and which ones are as destined for the Goodwill donation pile.
I can speak from experience — we’ve set up several profiles for Workshed, some of which are updated more than others. The other rub of Social Media is that it can take time to quantify the results of one’s efforts. We recently had a new client lead who stated they found us on Facebook. I’ve heard of other people getting some big ticket development jobs via Twitter. But it takes time and dedication to reap the fruits of one’s labors. And patience.
Also, one must decide how much they want to leverage these technologies. Do you want to become at the top of the heap in your industry or market? Or do you want to simply build a stronger bond with your customers? It helps to have a strategy in place so one can build a schedule and guidelines and stick to it.
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May 4th, 2009 at 3:03 pm
Hi Bret,
Wanted to register to add my $0.02. I think your blog post title is, really, something that can only be answered with a 10 page strategy piece. But you hit on the most important parts of social media and incorporating it into a web strategy: transparency and the amount of time spent to leverage the technologies.
There are some fantastic examples of how bigger companies are really taking hold of these new social media outlets and doing wonderful things. Take, for instance, Comcast. I pay them an enormous amount of money every month and I think everyone (including me) has some sort of (probably hard to guess why) dislike for the company.
Personally, Comcast actually has done some things right in my eyes, namely with Twitter. http://twitter.com/comcastcares - this twitter account is manned by one guy who provides specific advice to people either praising / moaning / in search of solutions for anything-Comcast. I’ve had a friend complain about his internet, this Comcast representative contacted him, told him to contact him directly, and my friend got some free swag along with his internet problem solved. You never saw this before the big social media explosion.
Great post. And kudos on writing on such an overarching subject and hitting on the essentials.
May 4th, 2009 at 5:13 pm
Hey Christian. thanks for your comments. You’re correct, it really does take a lot more evaluation for businesses to know where to focus their energy. We get a lot of people asking us about Twitter and it’s hard to tell them to “go for it” without knowing more about their businesses and customers. I really love your example of Comcast and I think that by offering such a service via Twitter, they are creating an entirely new image of themselves and possibly even improving their reputation among the collective Internet. Cheers, and thanks again!