Not sure about Social Media for your business? Get real.

Saying you’re not sure if social media is right for your business is like saying you don’t think the telephone is right for your business. Just as there are tele-marketing strategies that work for some businesses, there are social media, social networking and digital marketing strategies. But, just because a phone bank with telemarketers isn’t part of your business or marketing plan, wouldn’t you agree that will still do and be a better business if a phone is one of the tools you use to connect with people? It’s the same with social media.

Social media, new media, digital media… call it what you will; the world is communicating online. Your business needs to communicate online, too.

Where do you start? Even if you’ve slapped up a Facebook page or a Twitter account, the first thing you need to do is think about what role it is you want social media to play for you. In other words, what is the RESULT you want to see? Someone who established a telemarketing strategy might have had an objective to schedule in-person meetings, get donations, make sales or get feedback about a product. But regardless what the objective was, it came first. Unlike social media today, it is highly unlikely any business owner set up a bank of people or hired a telemarketing company without having a clear result in mind.

We at Bold Vision Consulting focus on helping organizations establish good, clear objectives; understand the role social and digital media can play in reaching those objectives and then help to lay a good, solid foundation to implement the strategy. Most of the time the objectives are around marketing, sales and promotion. However, social media is about communication and can help organizations improve internal or external results for marketing, customer service, research, training, HR, product development, employee retention, and on and on.

Here’s a simple form you can use to begin the thought process. It’s very basic, which is what you need to start. It’s not rocket science – it’s business. What is you want – from whom – what’s the best way to make that happen…

Next month there’s an MCED (Maine Center for Enterprise Development) workshop I’ll be attending. I’m normally presenting at Social Media “how-to” workshops, but this one intrigued me for a few reasons:

The lead teaser is “Social media is NOT a good idea for all companies.”
The agenda outline:
We will provide a strategic framework for discussing and evaluating the relevance and potential impact of social media for different types of organizations. Specifically…
- Can Social Media Drive Business Results
- Will It Enrich Your Customer’s Experiences?
- Who In Your Organization “Owns” It?
- Which Social Media Tools Should You Consider?
- What Are the Steps for Getting Started?
- How Can You Evaluate and Track Results?
- How Should You Think About Allocating Resources?
Aileen Cahill, the presenter, is one smart cookie.

Lobster phone, from our friends at Blue Blood Brand.

I do, however, hope #1) is just a tease to get people in the room. Aileen and I haven’t spoken in a while, but I’d be surprised if she seriously believes that online engagement doesn’t have a place in virtually every organization. That “place” may be different and vary in importance depending on the organizational goals and objectives, but still there is a place.

Saying you’re not sure if social media is right for your organization is like saying you’re not sure the telephone is right for your organization. There are telemarketing strategies that work for some businesses and not others, but that doesn’t mean all businesses don’t have a good use for a phone. It’s the same with social media.

Social media, new media, digital media… call it what you will; the world is communicating online. Your business needs to communicate online, too.