By Kailin Villamar
“Leveraging Social Media to Further your Company’s goals” was one of the topics discussed during the recent Red Shoe Tuesday event in New York City. Participants pondered whether certain platforms were more useful than others, if social media itself is a fad, and how they can measure ROI.
Here is a recap of what was shared.
Is social media just a fad?
Mary Neff – Social media is here to stay. It’s the one source to stay connected to the thing that matters most: the customer.
Leveraging social media: What are its key benefits? What is it good for?
- Helps companies influence brand awareness and reputation
- Increase rankings in online traffic to company website
- Generate sales or leads
What are some strategies that can be used for leveraging social media?
Mary Neff – Facebook and Twitter are just two of the platforms we use to give the ultimate customer experience. The power of conversation is what leads to great success with social media.
However for some companies like Avon, it is difficult to manage social media with the many products that are produced under one line.
Deborah Radcliffe – The secret is to focus on the key messages you’re sending to whom you are targeting.
Are there any policies we should set forth when creating social media policy?
- Social media communication managers should encourage workers to engage in a responsible way
- Start with the customers: Get to know who they are and inform them of your products
- Use social media to provide credibility to your customers
How do we measure our company’s social media effectiveness and ROI?
- With tools like SiteCatalyst companies can measure analytics and reporting to effectively see how much traffic is being generated to any page source after using social media.
- The key is to set goals within your social media plan and use the data you find out which topics or products are more likeable/talked about in order to get to know your customers in order to offer them more of what they love.
A few conclusions on leveraging social media:
- It is important for companies/brands to define which social platforms are relevant to their target audience.
- Mary Neff- Jet Blue has been able to use social media to identify our problems and not just smooth over the symptom. We identify what is actually wrong with products we offer based on the customer feedback just from our social feeds.
- Use social media to not only drive consumers but also to get them to stay intrigued with your company.
- Social media is like dating. I will follow you because I like you
