Social Media - Does it Work for Everyone?

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Social BlissWe were sitting in a meeting the other day talking about the launch of our new website and discussing the fact that we now have a blog regularly needing to be updated. Given that the website had only just been launched, there was palpable...

Social Bliss

We were sitting in a meeting the other day talking about the launch of our new website and discussing the fact that we now have a blog regularly needing to be updated. Given that the website had only just been launched, there was palpable enthusiasm for the new and exciting opportunity to create and maintain fresh and engaging website content.

Talk eventually led to the various topics we would each like to cover in our upcoming posts which included the usual suspects; SEO, usability, conversions and web trends when one of the lads in accounts interjected that he would like to write about the unbridled proliferation and utterly confusing nature of social media (I have slightly adjusted what he said - his language was more colourful). He stated that everyone had gone “crazy” in their uptake of the myriad of social programs and that it made doing business even more confusing as companies now have to take into account programs such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter in particular as part of their strategy. It shouldn’t be the "be-all and end-all" for goodness sake! We all had a good laugh. “Oh you poor old (he is 27 by the way) fool of an accountant”, the others expounded, “The web is now a haven for social media - we have people in the office specialising in these areas!" And so Mr. Accountant was put in his place and we all went back to discussing “legitimate” topics of our eagerly anticipated (or so we hoped) posts.

Heed the Accountant’s Warning

For some reason after the meeting I kept thinking about the comment made by my accountant friend. At Brightlabs we focus on corporate web solutions - we are specialists in the field of engineering web strategies for our clients (sorry – selfish plug) and where would our big corporate clients in areas such as energy, mining and health be without social media!? Hmmm. Surely they care about having a company profile on Facebook so that they can accumulate a fan base or perhaps a Twitter page for their CEO so that people can eagerly follow his/her daily activities…..Hmm. Does the CEO have time? Do they even care? Did Mr Accountant have a point?

Social media opens up a huge range of marketing possibilities that were non-existent just a year or two ago…but is it possible that there are some businesses and people within them that do not need (nor care) about this new social trend and yet are still able to build relationships and carry on doing business successfully? Can some businesses successfully ignore Social Media in their web strategies and still do well in today’s world? I decided that more research was required.

The Social Mix

We have so many people asking us about using Social Media as part of their web strategy it would seem that it is inextricably linked to doing business now. We have used a number of successful strategies utilising this Social Mix to increase the reach of our message and to promote a number of our new products; but the question remains – is Social Media important to every business and in this day and age can business be done without it?

Let’s start by having a look briefly at three commonly used Social Media programs – Twitter, Facebook and Myspace.

Twitter first came to prominence in early 2007, with the majority of its visitors being 18-24 year olds. Today, the site's largest age demographic are 35 - 44 year olds. Of all these users we can break it down into two major groups. The first group tends to work in the arts and entertainment industry and advocate very liberal political views. The second group are the 40-somethings. They are likely to earn above average household incomes and identify with very liberal politics.

Facebook is fast approaching 200 million users and Myspace is not that far behind. While Myspace once claimed to be the number one social site, towards the end of 2008 Facebook edged ahead. While Myspace typically attracts a younger audience Facebook offers better interconnectivity and sharing and thus attracts a wider demographic. In the last six months, Facebook has experienced considerable growth in the 35-54 year old demographic.

Hence we can generally conclude that while the ‘Social Mix’ is immensely popular, the demographics tend to skew towards younger audiences, however in recent times there has been an increased uptake by more mature users (focused more on Twitter and Facebook than MySpace).

Is Social Media a sure thing?

Due to the relative "newness" of Social Media, a number of companies are experimenting with various strategies in order to determine whether they are able to yield positive results. An interesting example comes from the candy giant, Skittles. In March of last year Skittles changed their entire web strategy by converting their web presence into an online portal featuring Twitter, Facebook and feeds from YouTube and Flickr. Within a few days the site was inundated with thousands of ‘Tweets’ from Twitter, most of which were bizarre and off topic and hence Skittles was forced to re-think the strategy and placement of the live user feed.

The revenue models for Social Media are another cause for concern for many businesses. In October 2006 Google paid $1.65bn for YouTube, yet YouTube was only forecasted to bring in $200m in advertising revenue (approx. 1% of Google’s revenue in 2008). Google is not alone in this. Facebook and MySpace also generated far less revenue than anticipated by analysts which is causing the companies to rethink their advertising strategies carefully. In May this year Facebook was valued at $10 billion which is $5 billion less than 2 years ago when Microsoft purchased a 1.6% share in the company for $240 million.

(All values are expressed in US dollars)

Does it suit every role?

So it appears that there are pitfalls. Let’s turn to some “real-life” examples of individuals in business.

Firstly, let’s take a younger executive (under 40) in a typically new age industry, dependant on the Internet. My friend Mike is a good example. Mike runs a software company that builds applications for companies with a global focus. His clients consist of the likes of Coca Cola and Sara Lee. Mike uses the new method of doing business – a highly integrated approach using contractors and stakeholders all around the world to help him develop his software products. When asked what he thinks of the ‘Social Mix’ he simply replies that he doesn’t use it - well at least not for business and neither do most of his clients. The people he talks to on a daily basis (responsible for making buying decisions) don’t seem to care much about the Social Mix in a business sense. He mentions that most of these decision makers are typically 40 or older, with families and their main use of social media (if any at all) is for keeping in contact with family and friends.

Now let’s try an older executive in a more established industry. Xerxes is an executive in a multinational corporation with operations around the globe. While his company is heavily involved in online activities in order to offer its guests services such as Internet bookings, his role is principally one of business development. How does the ‘Social Mix’ effect what he does? He explains to me that apart from using social media to keep in contact with friends and family, the business men and women he deals with don’t really have any requirement to use this particular technology. While important to some marketing efforts for other parts of the company, there is really no substitute for the personal relationships you build with clients especially when those clients are typically older and not so web savvy. These clients like talking to you in person and are not interested in “social fads and trends”.

So it appears that there are indeed people who don’t really need the help of the Social Mix to do business, build relationships and sell their company’s services. Of course Mike and Xerxes aren’t representative of everyone in business but they are interesting examples - it seems they are using the technology for the purpose it was originally intended. How odd.

When it works

A good example for our purposes which demonstrates a successful use of Social Media, comes from none other than a program we launched at Brightlabs this year. We recently launched a new SAAS (software-as-a-service) product and as previously mentioned, a large part of the promotion has been done using social programs like Twitter and YouTube and we are seeing some great initial results. It should be noted though that the market segments we are targeting use Social Media at work and to communicate with others. As a result, we’re seeing the benefits of a promotional strategy including these programs.

I will also turn again to the Skittles example. Skittles may have experienced some issues with the use of Social Media. After all, they were probably not expecting such bizarre user posts from Twitter but something does have to be said about the innovative nature of the idea. By the end of March last year Skittles had a Facebook fan base of over 500,000. A recent check shows that Skittles is nearly at 1,000,000 fans. Skittles understood that their consumer base was young and heavily involved with Social Media and it appears that in the long term, their strategy has paid off. Though most of the commentaries relating to Skittles’ bold experiment were more concerned with the method of promotion rather than the promotion itself, you can’t argue with the fact that Skittles generated a lot of attention.

In the above examples the campaigns were targeted and didn’t use technology just for technology’s sake. Though Skittles saw some unexpected uses of the software, in the long term the campaign has yielded positive results.

Social Media – A Reflection

It would be unwise to say that Social Media doesn’t work for business. It can work and work well but people need to consider how it is used and who needs to use it. People are so caught up in the hype and the desperate need to use the technology that they sometimes forget about what they are trying to achieve.

We have seen that Social Media can work but it won’t suit every role and every business. We need to remember that sometimes some of the best ways to forge relationships with your potential client base is through face to face interaction and use of the ever-reliable telephone. Social Media is yet another marketing channel and like any marketing method, be it PR, print, TV, SEO, PPC you need to ensure that it fits with your overall strategy and importantly, your ability to manage that strategy.

But it is easy to understand why people get caught up. Social Media is new and exciting and opens up a number of marketing possibilities. It will continue to evolve for quite some time and with this evolution, business will try and find new ways in which to capitalise on the opportunities afforded by the technology. As one observer very astutely pointed out - good social media doesn’t sell to people, people buy from companies using social media because they have a closer relationship with that company. So next time you think you need the help of Social Media to promote your business or build relationships, have a good think about what you are trying to achieve. It may not suit what you do and using it just for the sake of it may not yield the result you want.