April 30, 2010 - Doug Hanchard
Social network portals such as Facebook, Myspace and others offer interesting opportunities for companies to interact with its customers. Is it a space your company should leverage? The short answer is yes.
It can expand exposure for your company with several benefits including customer service, community interaction and offer an open dialogue where feedback can be publicly displayed.
The opposite can also occur. Negative publicity and require resources controlling any negative stories or incidences that may occur. Often a bad circumstances or incident can be turned into a positive outcome - for all to see. That can be a powerful testimonial for repeat business.
Is it worth investing time, resources and exposing your brand to social media? Or stay the course with a website and 'contact forms'. Each company's goals is different. Marketing analyst, advertising agencies which focus in the retail sector have pushed household brands to enter the social internet segment of the market enabling increased awareness.
Advertising dollars are moving to the Internet away from traditional media such as newspapers, radio and television. There are indications that internet advertising is less expensive and offers direct connection between you and the customer for lower costs than any other format. Many argue that it is a numbers game and not indicative of passive consumer influence on how purchase decisions are made.
In general terms, it is true that the Internet offers customer more information, offering choice on how buying decisions are made. Consumer items such as cars, homes and other big ticket items are purchases consumers research extensively via the internet. What's new is how research methods consumers use. No longer is it simply going to Consumers website to check out scorecards, ratings and complaints. Today users on Facebook are asking their friends for recommendations, feedback and their own scorecards when a user posts "what do you think of "Model XYZ?" and friends that they may barely know are not shy about offering their opinions.
This interaction is becoming a common occurrence on social media websites. Company's are now publishing fan pages on Facebook and ensuring that marketing or customer care employees maintain a watch on the page created on facebook to address issues and offer consumer advocacy regarding their products and services. With over 400 million registered users, Facebook is a tempting market opportunity for organizations to tap into and harness. What many executives are worried about is the question that nobody has a firm grip on; is it worth it? If a firm suggests that the answer is, 'it depends', then find another advisor. It's not a question of yes or no.
Many organizations should not invest in social network websites without clear goals. All industry verticals can successfully leverage these websites providing proper governance is adhered to.
Using Facebook as a marketing and advertising tool offers exponential growth for your organisation appropriately planned and tasked.
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