If I hear one more story about how a business owner thinks that they aren’t sure of whether or not social media is important, I think I might quit, move back to my hometown, and get a job at the Purple Turtle. If I hear one more story about a social media ‘expert’ who tries to help a client ‘do’ social media, only to screw it up and end up getting the company Punk’d (thank you @aplusk), I might decide to start pulling some pranks of my own.
Social Media Experts (I’m coming for you!)
At this point plenty of people have weighed in on the fact that there are no social media experts. There are some people who are very, very good. Some people who are seen as leading voices. The problem, of course, is that there are hundreds of business owners who are like, “Crap! This social media thing is huge! What do I do?” They need help. That’s Okay. There’s nothing wrong with that.
Over the next few blog posts, I’m going to share how I would start in social media if I had to start over. I’ve gone through this process a couple of times with different companies and it has worked out (so far).
First Up: “Doing” Social Media
First of all, the term ‘doing social media’ has got to go. That’s not what you’re doing. It’s what you’re using. What you’re doing is engaging with customers, listening to people, learning to communicate better – you’re learning the building blocks for better marketing.
You need your customers to like you.
The first step in bringing social media into your company is knowing why you need it. This has been covered by dozens of experts. If you need an infographic or a video to demonstrate why you need social media, go ahead and go find them. I’ll wait while you spend hours doing more research.
Done? Good.
What it really comes down to is this:
The web has made it so easy to get a recommendation from a friend that all that matters is that there’s someone (hopefully lots of someones) who is talking nice about you on the Web.
This is why Yelp has surpassed 30 Million unique visits per month. It’s why Facebook sends more news traffic than Google News. Lest you think Search is king, consider this: Google incorporates results from your social circle into the bottom of your search results, and real-time Tweets and news stories right in the search results for certain topics.
What’s more, it’s only going to get bigger. With the advent of the Facebook Like button, there are now 450 million (and counting) ‘Likers‘ running around the Web recommending people’s content.
So, if you are thinking of ‘doing’ social media, then please don’t delay. You’re already behind.
Next post, I’ll talk about how to pitch social media to your CEO/Business Owner/Boss. Of course, if you’re the business owner, you’ll be interested in knowing how to pitch social media to your staff – and see who on your staff needs to be involved!
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