Social Media has been around for some time and can hardly be called “new”. But the reality is, it changes so fast, it often feels untested and difficult to get to grips with. The challenges to businesses today trying to make use of it constantly renew themselves in the form of new tools, new tactics and new algorithms. These demand that companies keep up to date with news in the development of social media. For some companies, success never comes at all because of an addiction to old habits.
Among these old habits is a tendency to resort to hard sell when trying to gain attention on social media. This often does not work, especially on platforms like Facebook. For many, Facebook is a place to relax and socialise, and not to see advertisements and repeated attempts by your company to sell them something. Your hard sell may end up turning people off. In fact, from January 2015, Facebook intends to cut the reach of content with advertisement-like messages – so be prepared!
One way to make your content more interesting to customers is to use related topics that do not involve hard sell. It could be tips on using your product or service, testimonials from customers, features on your staff to give your company a human face, or even inspirational quotations that relate to your industry.
As people diverge to different social media channels of their choice, it will become even more important for businesses to know exactly where their key customers are most active online. As you may have heard, teens are no longer active on Facebook (because their parents are there!), so where have they gone? One answer, apparently, is Instagram – and if your market is in the teenage segment, you may want to consider engaging on the popular photo-sharing service, and learn to leverage hashtags. It is said that of Instagram’s 200 million users, 41% are aged 16-24 (GlobalWebIndex).
Finally, don’t forget the most important “customer” of all – your own boss. Management of social media remains a tricky affair, in part because of the reasons highlighted above. Strategy, content, resources, performance are all areas frequently questioned by management when it comes to social media. Regardless of how skillful your team is, management can be an enabler or a bottleneck when it comes to social media success. Management that micromanages social causes problems, while management that encourages experimentation innovates.
If you are a manager with staff who are running social media – the best way to understand and monitor is to use the social media tools yourself. The best way to manage social media is to participate.
To find out more about the social media courses provided by NUS-ISS, click here. SME-sponsored participants (Singaporeans & PRs) can get up to 90% funding of our National Infocomm Competency Framework (NICF) courses by Singapore Workforce Development Agency (WDA).