With more than 800 million Facebook users worldwide and a further 10,000 Australians signing up everyday, it is no wonder that social media has been a ‘hot topic’ in the last couple of years.
With the vast number of social media sites out there like Youtube, Twitter, LinkedIn and now Google+, navigating your way through the social media maze and keeping ‘on top’ of the latest trends can be a difficult task.
However daunting it may seem, businesses must consider the social media platform. Regardless of whether you like to use it on a personal level or not, social media has become a powerful communication platform that has transformed the way people find and share information.
From a business perspective, social media enables companies to engage communities, manage customer service needs and connect with multiple stakeholders in real-time.
Unfortunately, it isn’t as simple as creating a Facebook page and the job is done. Creating a strong and effective social media presence takes a fine-tuned strategy and a little TLC, making sure you show your followers that you appreciate them through incentives, feedback, entertainment and providing content that is useful and engaging.
For a long time, PR professionals have recognised the importance of online, digital and social media communications and as a PR Consultancy, we always urge our clients not to put ‘all their eggs in one basket’. In fact, all our successful PR campaigns now feature Facebook or a range of social media components along with traditional forms of communication.
Managing the social media aspect of these campaigns can include representing your brand, participating, initiating and coordinating conversations and competitions, answering questions, providing a support system for your clients and empowering them to become a champion for your products/services.
There is no one-size-fits-all approach either. The way you use social media to communicate with your customers, clients, and/or wider community depends on your business type and what you want to achieve.
When it comes to social media, it’s all about knowing your objectives and your audience and how to engage them and who better to do this than professional communicators who are well-trained to be responsive and transparent, with relative speed and immediacy, characteristics that have never been more important than in this new social and digital media age.
If you want to find out more about establishing and effective social media communications strategy contact us today.
