Twitter Business | The business of Social Media

 

“What would happen if you typed ‘your company name’ and Facebook into Google.”  This is without doubt a question that companies, particular traditional, mainstream companies should be asking themselves and if they don’t know the answer, they should be finding it out.

Why?

If your company or organisation is not taking control of your digital presence, if you don’t know what is being said about your organisation on Social Media sites like Facebook and Twitter, then you should.  There are already numerous pages set up on Facebook where customers comment and discuss both positively and negatively various brands and companies.  If you add to this sites like Twitter where word of mouth can travel quickly across large numbers of people, the potential for impact both positive and negative upon a brand is significant.

How then should companies react to this explosion of Social Media and the effect it can have upon their brands.  The first thing they need to do is to know is what is already being said out there, whether or not there already exists a digital presence that they did not know about and whether or not it is positive.  Once they have established this, then and only then, can they begin to formulate their own presence. If there is a negative perception of them or of particular parts of their business then they need to attempt to address this.  If there isn’t a presence or there is a positive one they need to ensure that they build on and cultivate one.

The key thing that companies need to remember about social media is that for the vast majority of user it is about engagement.  It is not enough to simply attempt to use it as yet another medium to dump advertising into.  Companies need to ensure that they engage consumers in such a way that they become participants in process and not just a target for advertising.

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