Chris Brogan’s advice for companies on how to use social media in business

Tuesday, September 07, 2010 | Posted by: Fiona Cullinan
Categories: Business advice, Media sector | Tags: business, media, Twitter, social media, Facebook, marketing, LinkedIn, blogs, Enterprise 2.0, forums, community, Chris Brogan

There are powerful business facets to Twitter and Facebook, but it requires some close attention to leverage them. ‘Social media rock star’ Chris Brogan suggests the first four steps any business should take. (Click the image to see a day in the social media life of Chris Brogan).

You’ve had your fill of hearing about social networking, Facebook, tweeting and blogging: it’s just a lot of people talking about themselves and wasting your time and theirs and brings nothing to the world of business.

Or maybe that isn’t how you view it at all and you think that there is something in it, so you’re looking at all the tools and thinking of implementing it, to some degree. But nothing is working out the way you thought it would. The first consultant you hired knew less than you, perhaps. Or they steered you down the wrong path.

Wherever you started, here is where it all goes next, and how you can get onboard.

LISTENING COMES FIRST
Where most people go wrong right out of the gate is that they start by using these new channels to talk.

Listening (using the various social networks and media channels as a way to take in more information about your organisation, your products, your competitors, the space at large) is where the action gets good.

Google the phrase ‘grow bigger ears’ for a step-by-step on how to build a listening station out of free software, and then start determining how this information can be threaded into your other collection points at the business. For instance, are people commenting on a blog post about something that customer service would normally handle? Build the simple process to have someone listen for this kind of situation, and thread it into your typical customer service operations.

Listening is also a great way to find new prospects, or even convert some sales. For instance, if you’re a local print shop, you can listen on Twitter and on blogs for when companies talk about name changes or site redesigns. These are all opportunities for your print shop. Note that these kinds of opportunities are every bit as available to business-to-business types as they are just as likely to be commenting about such opportunities.

CONNECTING IS IMPORTANT
Social media moves fast and requires a lot of hand-holding. In the old days, people were content to just fill out comment cards, or to call a customer service number. They were happy to just receive your email newsletter or respond to your banner ads. The world’s changed. People want relationships. How will you go about serving up these opportunities?

Connecting requires that a few people in your organisation actually have accounts and some kind of presence on these social networks. It means having a LinkedIn, a Facebook, a Twitter, and a few other accounts. It means going out to the blogs where people are writing posts about your business (or your competitor, or your vertical) and commenting back and forth where they’re talking about you.

It doesn’t always mean that you have to show up and act all salesy. Once you learn how to communicate by offering value, by being helpful, and by being human, you’ll find more leads than ever before. We see case studies of this quite often right now in the social media world, and each one is precipitated by building relationships long before the actual sales conversation happens.

PUBLISHING MATTERS
Almost every business, no matter what it does, is now something of a media business, like it or not.

We’re seeing heating and ventilation experts using YouTube videos to demonstrate their passion for quality installation, and then converting that into sales calls. We’re seeing companies use their blogs to tell stories about the kinds of people who would use their products, but stories where their product isn’t the main character.

The importance of thinking like a publisher is that it finally points your mind in the direction of realising that you don’t have to wait for mainstream press coverage to get your thoughts and ideas out. In fact, the more you realise the business value of your community as an audience for related materials and content, you’ll see even more options.

Look at American Express’s OPENForum, a shift that Amex made by pointing people to a content-rich community instead of creating a flyer with just a few business tips. Now a thriving community of readers who engage heavily in the forums, the opportunity to deliver even more business value, to improve brand loyalty, and the chance to capture even more small business customers is vast.

IT’S NOT SIMPLE, BUT IT’S EFFECTIVE
There aren’t many financial costs to starting up the use of social media tools for your business marketing and communications. However, these tools take time, they take a commitment to being there for more than the initial sale, and they require a lot more sensitivity and human-mindedness than traditional marketing and communications options. And yet, it’s changing how we do business.

You’ve got the steps listed above as starting points. The questions that should follow are: “How will your organisation lace this into the rest of your marketing and communications efforts? How will your organisation measure success? How will your organisation make your marketing and communications materials more share-able and more two-way?”

That’s where this all gets interesting.

• Chris Brogan is the New York Times bestselling author of Social Media 101.  He is president of New Marketing Labs, LLC, and blogs at www.chrisbrogan.com

This article originally appeared in Elevate magazine for business leaders.  Images: Chris Brogan (CC) by Randy Stewart / blog.stewtopia.com; Infographic of Chris Brogan’s social media usage: (CC) Intersection Consulting

You might also like:
* Why Facebook matters to business by Alex Connock, CEO, Ten Alps
* Enterprise 2.0 on the drive towards social tools in business
* 10 ways to be a CEO blogger

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