Eight Ways for Executives to Get Involved in Social Media
by Josiah Sternfeld, Director of Media
For many executives the phrase "social media" invokes images of giggling teenagers chattering away on MySpace.com about their favorite band. Considering this image, it makes sense that some business people, especially in the B-to-B space, have been loathe to investigate social media or experience it for themselves. Why would you take the time to keep up with a fad when you barely have time to filter through your daily influx of business-related information? What could social media — these blogs, wikis, networking sites and the like possibly have to do with driving business results?
A lot. In learning why people use various forms of social media wary executives can further understand the changing marketing environment and the ways in which these media are relevant to their companies. The business applications of social media include identifying business opportunities, improving personal productivity and marketing via social media — for B-to-C and B-to-B executives. For those seeking advice on where to begin I offer this short list of eight suggestions sure to kick-start a greater appreciation for a trend that's here to stay.
Set up a personalized home page.
Creating an iGoogle or MyYahoo! page is a terrific way to aggregate Web content that matters to you. Not only can you fill your page with useful tools such as weather, stock widgets and sports tickers, you can also easily aggregate RSS feeds that cull news from sources you select. iGoogle and Yahoo! have great RSS library systems, but many sites, including most top publishers and blogs, also provide the ability to add their RSS feeds to your personalized home page.
Maintaining a customized home page helps you understand how people use and produce online content. It also increases productivity because it makes sorting through information instantaneous. For example, if a client happens to post company news to a blog, you can make those posts appear on your home page. That way you don't have to check the client's blog every day — or wait until your next meeting with the client to find out what he's been up to. To begin setting up your personal home page, go to www.google.com, click on "iGoogle" in the upper right corner and select your preference
Business application:
- Setting up a personalized home page helps you
- • "Get" social media
- • Follow news relevant to your industry and clients
- • Plan for your own company's online marketing communications
Google now constantly scans the Web for mentions of your name or your company's name and notifies you via e-mail when your brand or chosen keywords are mentioned. Finding out about these mentions is as simple as going to google.com/alerts and entering your name and your company's name into the search terms box. In one easy step, you've joined the world of "social media monitoring."
Google Alerts work much like a normal PR monitoring service, except Google scans many top blogs as well as news sites to find your name (or company's name) in content by anyone — not just recognized news sources. For example, Google Alerts will let you know if a blogger is complaining about or praising your company. Keeping in touch with what people are saying about you or your business helps you glean your clients' or consumers' perspectives, and this is sometimes difficult for executives who must constantly involve themselves with internal business issues. But take feedback cautiously — the most communicative people on the Internet often represent a minority of your audience (usually the most happy or most disgruntled). It's important to read their posts, but look for consistent commentary before deciding to react.
Overall, the Google Alert service reduces the time you spend searching for information and brings you closer to your public by letting you know what's floating around online about you and your brand — potentially giving you the chance to respond immediately and/or directly. To set up a Google Alert, go to http://www.google.com/alerts.
Business application:
- Set up a Google Alert to
- • Understand online information availability
- • Decrease overall research time
- • Find out what people are saying about you or your company online
Can't find that online article you wanted to share with colleagues? Should have tagged it on your Del.icio.us page. Del.icio.us is a social bookmarking site that makes it easy to bookmark interesting Web content while adding tags and comments you and others can later use to find those bookmarks. Not only does this system make it easy to organize information, it allows you to share it with others. Using a Del.icio.us account to swap information will get you in touch with the appeal of peer feedback and peer content referrals.
Using Del.icio.us makes sorting and sharing information efficient, and it's also useful for streamlining research processes for your business. By setting up a group Del.icio.us account that allows everyone on your team to share and comment on work-related articles, you can avoid redundancy and save time.
Business application:
- Create a del.icio.us page to
- • Improve productivity
- • Increase collaboration
- • Streamline research processes
If you haven't already Googled yourself, your friends and your company, you need to get more acquainted with the Internet. In fact, you should probably stop reading this and do it now. But the first results page of a Google name search is probably less useful to your business than Googling your company with a specific purpose in mind — doing so offers several benefits.
Much in the way that Google Alerts can let you know when someone posts something about you or your company online, a Google search that includes phrases such as "[company's name] feedback," "I hate [company's name]," or "[company's name] complaint" will alert you to feedback on the Web. The goal of this kind of Google search should be to uncover user-generated content that will give you access to user opinions of your product or service. Those who pay attention to these posts can reap valuable rewards as recent research suggests that peer-to-peer reviews are the most trusted informational resource (for both the B-to-C and B-to-B spaces) during a buying decision. One negative post can cost the company a significant amount of money.
Monitoring people's reviews of your company online comes with its pitfalls, though. Opinions people post on the Internet tend to be more negative than those people voice elsewhere. You shouldn't rely solely on what you read online when deciding to react to audience opinion. Still, some of the insights offered on Internet posts are the stuff that many companies spend countless dollars and many focus group hours to discover.
Besides facilitating free opinion research, Googling yourself or your company can help you understand search engine optimization (SEO) and the ways people find (or discover) you or your company on the Internet. Part of improving the probability that Web content related to you appears in the upper rankings of a Google search results page is knowing what keywords or terms people use to find you — intentionally or unintentionally. Knowing these terms can help you or your technical team optimize your content or site for search engines. In general, Googling your interests is an easy way to keep your ear to the ground and understand the importance of the search engine results page.
Business application:
- Google yourself or your company to
- • Find out what people are saying about you online
- • Inform PR efforts
- • Learn what keywords yield posts or sites related to your company
At LinkedIn you can easily build a page that highlights your impressive resume and credentials for all to see, and this page can connect to colleagues' pages. Meet someone at a conference but lost her business card? Find her on LinkedIn. Trying to reconnect with a former business associate? He's probably on LinkedIn, too. And if you're trying to find that perfect person for an open position, chances are you know someone on LinkedIn who can refer you to a good candidate.
LinkedIn taps into the same reasons most people use Facebook or MySpace: to promote themselves/their uniqueness, to connect with friends and to meet new people. LinkedIn can also help sales people to stay close with potential or current clients and human resources professionals to find suitable job candidates, and it also offers the business-networking benefit of allowing people, through mutual contacts, to create connections with others they've never met. Create your own LinkedIn profile at www.linkedin.com.
Business application:
- Set up a LinkedIn account to
- • Understand how people use social networking sites
- • Connect with new associates or potential clients
- • Reconnect with old contacts
- • Find job candidates
Joining a forum is a great way to share information among peer groups or gain insight into the common needs of your clients or customers. Become part of one and begin answering people's questions and posing questions of your own, but beware: The purpose of the forum is to share useful information — not to promote your company. You can use forums to highlight your or your organization's abilities, but you must take care in how you present yourself. Finding a relevant forum can sometimes be a challenge, but a good start would be to Google your industry's name and the word "forum."
Forums are one of the oldest forms of social media and thus have proliferated in many directions with loyal followings. Becoming a part of one of these communities can give you perspective on how people use social media to learn — and grow your organization's online presence.
Business application:
- Join a forum to
- • Understand how people use forums
- • Gain insight into customers' perceptions
- • Establish your or your company's expertise
Consistently reading a blog (short for "Web log") can help you further understand how and why people use social media. A blog is a site to which people post commentaries, much like dated journal entries. Blogs can combines text, images and links to other blogs, Web pages and other media.
Often bloggers focus on news and current events, but many write a hybrid of news analyses and personal thoughts. Many leaders in the business category maintain blogs that offer perspectives into how current events or recent trends may affect your business. Some interesting business blogs include GuyKawasaki.com, Churchofthecustomer.com and marketinggenius.blogspot.com. A great place to start is the business section of Technorati.com, a site that tracks and ranks the most popular blogs on the Web. If you begin following a particular blog, it's easy to add the blog to your personalized home page so that you don't have to always navigate to the blog's URL.
If you've ever thought about starting your own blog, you should first spend a good amount of time reading others' blogs to understand what tone and style you prefer. Blogs can help business people connect with a passionate user base, but you should be prepared to invest a lot of time writing and establishing a regular following.
Business application:
- Read a blog to
- • Research efficiently and for free
- • Connect with loyal customers
- • Gain market insight and stay on top of trends
Editing a Wikipedia entry can help you understand the subjectivity of user-generated content — and its state of constant flux. You are likely familiar with Wikipedia, the online, user-generated encyclopedia that offers definitions and explanations of a tremendous number of topics. The wiki is built entirely by users, with only the contributions of volunteer posters and editors. It is increasingly becoming the first stop for information seekers.
Participating in the construction of this living encyclopedia will help you appreciate the information flow of a virtual environment. You can also use Wikipedia to provide information about your business category or a topic related to your business. Doing so is a good way to build awareness about your product or service offerings, especially if your industry is niche or complex. Note that although anyone can edit a Wikipedia entry, community policy prohibits people who are compensated by companies to edit postings. And be careful not to edit an entry about your own company. That's a big no-no in the wiki world. Enjoy Wikipeida but edit at your own discretion.
Business application:
- Edit a Wikipedia entry to
- • Research for free
- • Understand virtual environments
- • Build awareness of your category or business
People participate in social media because these media add value to their lives. Not limited to light entertainment, social media include enjoyable, usually time-efficient and often educational pursuits. Social media proliferate because people need to share information and connect with others — a need that has long existed in non-virtual forms.
Executives who ignore the potential of social media do so to their detriment. The Web continues to advance both as a communications tool and a font for new ideas, while the Internet continues to influence how modern consumers think and act. And in order to keep your brand involved in the public exchange of information you must be willing to participate sincerely online as a company. Considering social media's capacity to help you identify business opportunities, improve productivity and get the word out about your business, it's more than worth your time to try it out.
