Information vs. Community: Determining the Direction of Your Social Media Presence
Do all these funny-sounding social media sites cross your eyes? You need help sorting the tweets from the buzzes! Spider Writers can develop a sound social media marketing plan that brings followers to your profiles, and your business. Contact us today at 757-499-1990, ext. 104 for a free consultation.
As long as marketing exists, so word of mouth will remain the most proven method for promoting products and services. With social networks, the odds of good buzz are amplified through tweets, Yelp reviews, Digg clicks, and even the simplest of social status updates. If you want people to talk about your business, you know your presence online has to give them something for discussion. Yet with the structure of some networks – some of which allow for message board style conversation – and the ability for companies to set up their own social hubs independent of major networks, there comes the question of how to approach your social activity. Do you maintain the lines of information and keep personal op/ed at a distance, using Twitter and Facebook for link sharing, or do you foster a full-blown community and give visitors a new place to call home?
It’s been said that the majority of Twitter users, for example, can be classified into two groups: the “me-formers” and the “informers.” Me-formers talk about themselves: what they watch, what they eat, what they listen to, and keep the focus on their own activity. A me-former interesting enough to attract a following beyond immediate friends and family can prove valuable for a marketer looking to nurture word of mouth. The Informer, by contrast, acts as a news wire, constantly tweeting links to other sites with news on anything relevant and timely. You might see the Informer’s timeline feature information on where to send donations for earthquake relief, or link to celebrity obits, or retweet breaking news from official media accounts. Why would anybody follow an impersonal Informer? If that person is prolific, it may beat following fifty different accounts when one does all the work.
As you build your online networks, it’s important to determine how to present yourself to a potential following. The nature of business may make this decision easier, whether you choose for your profiles to serve as a means of simply relaying sales information or events, or if you would prefer to engage others in conversation and obtain feedback for products and services. If the latter, there is the possibility MySpace, Facebook, or Twitter may not sustain what you wish to accomplish. It would seem logical to encourage greater participation through a message board, and free software is plentiful for that purpose, but a forum can limit how members wish to express themselves. For better control of the way you business socializes, you may wish to pursue customized networking.
Depending on your budget, there are options suited to the pricing you wish to pay. Ning.com is perhaps one of the better known DIY social networks, which allows you to set up your own page to your specifications. You can input RSS feeds and your YouTube Channel, and users can join your Ning channel while also setting up their own profile pages and moving elsewhere through Ning sites. Ning can be useful for those who wish to collect their minor social presences in one place for visitors to access, and discuss.
The developer-minded business may wish also to explore more advanced options in this realm. Social network development sites like KickApps and SocialGo offer paid solutions in this realm, which permit integration of other social sites. One advantage to the custom network is that you can actively track opt-in members and encourage the level of interaction you desire. While Facebook fan pages offer similar benefits of fan interaction through wall posts and photo sharing, that your page is but one of thousands on the network may dilute fan interaction due to the amount of competition for attention you face. With Ning and others, though there are other sites connected to Ning, the focus tends to remain on your site.
To maximize your social media presence, determine first how you intend to use your online networks, and build accordingly. Custom social networks may work if you wish to raise awareness of your products and services through active discussion.
Kathryn Lively is a social media specialist assisting clients with social media optimization and travel social media services. Clients include Gainesville hotels, European hotels, and Virginia web design
firms.
