Brands use social in 6 pillars; HR, PR, Sales, Customer Service, Business Intelligence and Internal Communications.
Social Media has been around for quite some time now however as digital has rapidly evolved I think we’re in an age where we maybe need to pause and digest all of the information out there and to help me with this I have enrolled on the Google Squared Online course to ensure I’ve picked up the correct information. In module one we heavily focused on the digital revolution, social consumers and social strategy. Tiffany St James, co founder of Transmute outlined six pillars of how businesses use social media, I wanted to share my findings.
#1 HR
Businesses are now embarking on recruitment drives via social media, in fact research from social recruiting platform Jobvite indicates the vast majority of recruiters (94%) either already use or plan to use social media for recruiting. From tweeting about upcoming roles to directly headhunting via LinkedIn social media has certainly shaken up traditional recruitment methods. Many businesses aim to create a two way street with potential employees, showcasing their culture and stories of what a great place their company is to work for.
Social has enabled true integration when it comes to recruitment, it has high engagement rates, coupled with ease of action for the candidate and company there’s definitely a connection between having a solid social media strategy and finding top talent.
#2 PR and Social Media Marketing
PR is the most common business use of social media, over the past ten years the rise of digital has moved PR and marketing away from the traditional dialectic approach and into a dialogic arena which basically means we’re in a time where brands are now conversational. Social media offers the chance for brands to listen to their consumers and interact with them directly. The scope of this pillar would warrant many blog posts which I will develop and add over the next few months so I will leave it rather brief for now but there are ample examples to draw good practice from and brands that listen, and most importantly listen well are almost guaranteed to do better than those that don’t. Listening and engaging in social media and current trends can spread your message more than any other channel could in literally minutes. You have the power whilst developing your digital strategy to ensure you portray the message you want and by engagement you can ensure it goes in the direction you want it to go.
Some examples: thanking customers directly, witty responses (bodyform), identifying advocates, issues hijacking, addressing concerns, monitoring sentiment, content sharing.
#3 Direct Sales
Using social media, especially Facebook to drive and channel direct sales has even resulted in a new phrase to be born – ‘F-commerce’.
In ecommerce terminology, Facebook commerce, or F–commerce, is a strategy that focuses on developing or designing ecommerce content and storefront sites within the Facebook social networking site.
Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest all drive sales via their social media feeds, unlike traditional door to door salesmen, social media has made it easy for people to sell to potential consumers without the effort of canvasing a whole area. We’re in a time when no budget projects can take off very easily, say for instance someone creates something in arts and crafts, shares a photo with their friends and generates interest, through simply using the comments box they can sell directly to consumers, not needing an app, e commerce website or any money behind them other than their supplies. Business models such as Avon and Juice Plus have also gained a lot more momentum through their representatives being able to channel sales via social. Obviously with the added demand companies such as Facebook have developed solutions such as Facebook auctions, customised Facebook storefronts etc. to support businesses.
#4 Customer Service
With the rise of digital and social media we now live in a time where customers flee to Twitter and other networks to vent frustration with brands and tell stories of unsatisfactory service. What’s even more scary for businesses is that criticism could (and does) go viral, one unsatisfied British Airways customer even paid money for a promoted tweet which reached 76,000 people before the brand responded. As with all things we can also take the positives out of the rise of digital and when handled right dealing with customer service via social does give the opportunity to publicly win a consumer around and become a brand hero just as quickly. There have been case study after case study where brands offering good customer service via social have become well known and loved far beyond there initial reach.
Social opens up real time customer service, not so long ago people would write a letter and wait up-to 7 days for a written response, now with the opportunity to email or tweet back in almost real time brands have the opportunity to respond in a timely manner and maybe through this prevent the issue from getting bigger, the consumer festering on the problem.
The tone of response is very important and brands must be aware that it is a real conversation with real people. There’s quite a number of examples where brands have got this so wrong, but others where it has been a huge success, knowing your brand identity inside out and communicating your core values to all employees which will have access to respond will help you to get your messages right. It may also be advantageous to have a contingency plan and strategy for what if scenarios but ultimately the power in getting the service right comes from friendly and personal responses, even if it is just to ask the consumer to call the support centre to discuss the options available to them, done in the right way you’ll leave your customers happy and feeling valued.
#5 Business Intelligence/ Development
We all know that a key driver in creating a successful strategy/campaign is to understand who your customers are and what they want, in essence understanding the customer journey. A key area in helping to gauge this is social media, engage and listen and ultimately gain really important insights into what customers want throughout the whole customer journey, from the initial staging/positioning (brand awareness), to the purchase/conversion stage, right through to the post purchase experience, as a brand you are able to adapt and change your model based on the findings derived. Brands now can easily be part of the social conversation, you are able to listen to concerns and positive feedback and incorporate your finding into future campaigns in almost real time.
Here’s a short (1.17) video outlining a case study, Gatorade’s mission control social media lab.
Tools to help you with social analytics include Twitters Advanced Search, Google Trends, and Social Mention.
#6 Internal Communications
Internal Communication is required for all organisations, whether a small family run business or large blue chip company, keeping employees informed helps to ensure your brand message and mission are being portrayed correctly and results in higher retention rates, the possible creation of brand advocates (employee led communication has more success than corporate led communication) and increased productivity which will inevitably lead to higher profitability.
Internal Social Media enables companies to increase internal brand awareness, build relationships with employees, promote new products, share information about the competition, highlight industry trends, promote best practice (share stories of success) and communicate quickly during a crisis. Tools to achieve this includes blogs (microblogs), emails, forums, Twitter, newsletters/ staff magazines, videos, podcasts and bespoke intranets.
There is a plethora of software packages and apps available that aims to connect teams and enable ease of collaboration when working with each other internally. Examples include Yammer, IBM Connections, Slack, Salesforce and many more.