Many SBDC and CITD clients are asking questions about social networking. Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and other sites are being used successfully by small businesses to maintain relationships with customers and increase sales. But are they always a good idea?
A recent story on National Public Radio discussed the phenomenon:
Multinational corporations, such as Ford Motor Co. and Coca-Cola Co., are beginning to use social media to increase positive sentiment, build customer rapport and correct misinformation, says Adam Brown, Coca-Cola’s Atlanta-based director of social media.
But the key is in being subtle:
“Social media is all about being social,” says Nora Ganim Barnes, a marketing professor and director for the Center for Marketing Research at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. “It’s not called selling media. The biggest mistake companies make is using social media to hawk products. It’s a turnoff.”
We see this often in viral web videos. Many times we pass around a cool video among friends and you’re not even sure what company sponsored the video until the end. An example of this we really liked was the T-Mobile Dancing video.
This all sounds positive and easy to do. But then we read an article from “Web Guru” Jakob Nielson about using third-party applications for social media. Not bad in terms of publicity, but bad in terms of usability. He cites misleading thumbnails from Youtube and poor video selections from Youtube and other video services which make for an unsatisfactory user experience.
He recommends selecting your own thumbnails for video clips, making specific categories for videos, and making the list of videos searchable. If you absolutely MUST use a third-party application for your social media, he advises writing titles and descriptions that will guide the user.
If you have questions about using social media in your business, give us a call at the SBDC and CITD to schedule an appointment with a Small Business Advisor. Gabriel Reyes has advised clients on using Facebook, Twitter, Yelp, Youtube, and more.
Do you use social media to promote your small business? Share your warnings and successes in the comments section below.
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