Social Media Marketing Best Practices for Companies

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Duncan Alney on August 13, 2008 at 8:00pm

It seems to be more focused on online customer communities specifically. I do agree with you - its a rich piece. Who else do you follow?

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Duncan Alney on August 13, 2008 at 8:00pm

You're also right that this group is not very social. I find smaller indiana to be slightly less than sticky.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Vincent Hunt on August 26, 2008 at 10:24pm

Amazing post and great share!! I really feel, that as we move forward in this space now called "Social Media" - we will find that there will be several "blue prints" for it's success, and through this process, as all processes, there will probably be a Social Media Best Practices Manual Written (v1.0 .2 blah blah blah) that will set the tone or "rules for engagement"... However; if I can interject a very critical and immanently important piece to this is that in all of the "Corporate Definitions" there will have to be a very organic and very human level established as well. If not - what will will find is yet another cold, "play by play" interpretation of something that is designed to be very real and fluid on both ends of the table.

Cheers!

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Katie Swander on September 8, 2008 at 11:14am

Great article! I think this is a good starting point for making the case to management that social networking has to be incorporated into the overall marketing strategy.

I know in my organization (government agency) I have come up against two big hurdles to management acceptance. 1) The new yardstick. In our traditional communications, the call-to-action has been to drive traffic to our web site. The problem for me is that I don't know how to equate site traffic to dollars and staff time spent on social networking (budget). Can I justify making a video for YouTube? How many unique visitors do I need to make that worthwhile? I don't know.

2) Giving up control of the community. No community is going to be full of happy comments about your business/agency. How do you know when to let a negative comment stand, and how do you justify that to your boss?

Thanks, Chip, for starting this discussion!

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Chip McComb on September 8, 2008 at 11:38am

Glad you enjoyed the post! It's an interesting dilemma we're facing as we try to convince the old guard of the value of social networking. A third hurdle I'm seeing that often stands in the way of management acceptance is ROI.

A speaker I head today referenced just this very problem. How about tThe next time they ask you why they should interact in the social media sphere, or what the ROI of a social media marketing strategy is. Ask them... "What's the ROI of you putting on your pants this morning?" or "What's the ROI of the receptionist?" not everything can be boiled down to a dollars and cents ROI.

I'm attending a marketing conference today in Boston. And I'm hearing some great stuff!! You can follow it online here. http://www.inboundmarketingsummit.com/stream

▶ Reply to This