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 Date:6/22/2010 It's Your Call |
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Social Media: Which Platform Best Serves Your Business Social media is ubiquitous but overwhelming. Titan SEO’s Amanda Finch examines the trend and suggests how businesses can most effectively deploy the technology to best suit their specific needs. 
Social media is everywhere.Companies employ social media advertising in numerous ways: commercials, radio, billboards, Web sites and even in our cell phones and other mobile devices. Logos for Facebook, Twitter and FlickR reside at the bottom of hundreds of business Web sites. We’re asked to subscribe to blogs or become “fans” and connect in ways that seem countless. But important questions remain: Are we actually benefiting? Do companies that use such platforms witness measurable results? The number of social media platforms—and their advantages and disadvantages—can be overwhelming. As such, Titan SEO decided to examine those that we feel are the most advantageous and describe the business-related pros and cons. But it’s critical to realize that not every industry should spend time and money on these platforms. As such, it’s best to analyze your desired outcomes before engaging a social media campaign. Further, assessing costs and potential profits can help identity the social media program that best suits your needs. Let’s look at different programs. Blogs Blogs are a good starting point, as these are widely considered the “base” of any social media campaign. Among other benefits, blogs add personality to a Web site, boost industry perception, build brand awareness, create emotional investment in your company, and educate others through your demonstrated market knowledge. Additionally, blogs are easily integrated into other social media platforms (such as your Facebook and Twitter accounts). But there are at least two significant downsides to company blogs:
Trends come and go, but Facebook is one of the most relevant and widespread social-networking platforms. After blogging, Facebook should be the second social media device used, as it takes brand awareness to the next level, and for several reasons:
Additionally, Facebook provides an analytics tool whereby companies can view weekly reports detailing new fans, numbers of interactions, and types of actions taken on their pages. Further, Facebook enables creation of customized tabs upon which other platforms (e.g., Twitter and blogs) can be linked to a Facebook profile. But Facebook has its downside: As with blogging, the company page requires a substantial time commitment, although time needed is considerably less than on platforms like Twitter. Still, successful management of a Twitter account entails a great deal of time and energy. Twitter itself generates as many as 27.3 million “tweets” per day. Keeping track of who is talking about your company, your product, or who needs to know about you can be overwhelming, to say the last. Also, one needs to keep in mind various factors, such as the need to “retweet” or quickly reply or maintain an appropriate “follower to following” ratio to ensure better optimization. These are only two of many variables. On the upside, Twitter allows users to employ programs such as TweetDeck to monitor “tweets” or schedule “tweets” for distribution. However, while Twitter can be an extremely innovative method to reach customers, it only works for certain businesses and in certain instances. Further, account success requires regular maintenance and a well-defined strategy. YouTube Yes, YouTube is considered a social media platform. It’s also the second most used search engine (right behind Google). And yes, it is a “search engine.” For the record, YouTube is used in this fashion primarily by the younger generation, and not as frequently as those who might actually have the resources to become a customer. However, with a trend this large, companies should not be too quick to overlook YouTube as a branding and informational tool, especially considering the average time on site is 23 minutes. The benefits of maintaining a YouTube presence include:
Of course, as with the other platforms discussed, variables come into play; but if your company has already produced video creative for usage on Web site or blog, it is easy to create a YouTube Channel and cast a much wider net, especially considering YouTube's time constraints are also much lighter on company resources than with the other platforms. Anticipating the “Next Big Thing” As with all social media platforms, what is hot today might be cold tomorrow. Companies need to be able to accurately determine where and how to best allocate their time and resources to increase brand awareness and maintain a positive on- and off-line reputation. This conservative and well thought out approach will help prepare companies for the next phase of social media, or whatever type of media becomes the "next big thing". Search engine marketing companies and their clients must consider these factors when making decisions about how and when to advance marketing efforts. Author Amanda Finch is vice president of operations for Titan SEO Inc., an Escondido, Calif.-headquartered enterprise that helps its clients improve their online presence. For more information, visit www.titan-seo.com. |