3 Ways to Build a Social Media Presence
(Long Island, N.Y.) Social networking can take a lot of time. As a business owner, you have several choices about how to give your company a strong presence on the Web. This, of course, is assuming you’ve decided it is important. (And if you’re reading this column, I’m guessing you’re right there with me on how critical social networking can be.)
If you want to build a social networking presence on the Web, you can:
Devote a few days to getting your networks set up, and then a few hours a day to maintaining that presence.
Divvy up tasks amongst your employees, asking everyone (or individuals in certain departments) to spend some time each day expanding the company’s Web presence.
Hire an outside firm to handle all your social marketing needs.
If you opt for number three, you can hire a marketing company specializing in Internet marketing, a virtual assistant, or a consultant. Whomever you choose, make sure that individual understands your unique brand, the needs of your customers, and the image you want your company to convey online.
Do-It-Yourself Social Media
The first option works well for very small businesses – solo-preneurs and freelancers, or operations with a small staff where the owner takes an active role in day-to-day operations. If you fit this description and are deciding whether or not to take the D-I-Y approach, ask yourself:
- Is social media my passion?
- Can someone else do the job better than I could?
- How much could I pay someone else to do the job as well (or almost as well) as I do it — and is that rate less than my time is worth?
Do It In-house
The second option may work in mid-to-large size companies, but has drawbacks. “Social networking” is a gray area. Even freelancers have difficulty quantifying the value of the time they spend on social networks. It’s easy to find tools (such as Google Analytics) that track your click-thrus, as well as conversions from those clicks. But these numbers only tell part of the story.
Social networking (as so many people have said) is about relationships. Even if that conversation you started didn’t result in an immediate sale, will it benefit you in other ways? In the past few months, I’ve made several friends through social media. They may never purchase my services – and I may or may not buy theirs – but the word-of-mouth we generate for each other is not quantifiable. In other cases, it takes time before all the relationships you build do result in conversions. But as long as you’re building your brand, I’d like to think that’s not time wasted.
When you’re dealing with employees, however, it’s too hard for them to justify nearly any kind of online chatting, linkbacks and photo-sharing as “social networking,” when, in fact, it may be more “social” than “networking.”
I have seen this model work. If you put incentives in place where employees are rewarded for immediate results, they’re less apt to waste time. If you don’t see a return on your investment within, say, six months, you can re-structure, handle the social media part of your business yourself or turn to option 3, hire a professional.
Hiring a Pro
Again, even if you hire an outside firm, you want to measure your results – especially if the company is billing you hourly. I was very proud the other day to have a client who produces radio shows share with me that one particular episode had “the most listeners ever!” She attributed it to the tweets (Twitter posts) and promos for the show; I wasn’t going to argue. In reality, it wouldn’t have worked so well if it wasn’t a great topic and captivating expert guests to begin with, but that just brings us to a point most successful business owners know well: No amount of social networking will help if your product isn’t something people feel moved to buy. You need both the sizzle and the steak!
