Olga Pikulska writes: Social media provide ways to reach clearly defined business goals.
Social media are not just for keeping in touch with friends, but also an effective tool to enhance companies’ image, popularity and productivity.
They offer the opportunity to communicate with current and potential clients and journalists, as well as creating small- and large-scale public relations campaigns.
But many companies in Ukraine have a long way to go to take full advantage of social media, such as Facebook, Twitter and blogs. There are plenty of opportunities and risks involved. Each firm needs a strategy to take best advantage, and avoid pitfalls.
The media landscape has undergone a revolution over the last decade. The key change is that the traditional media professional is no longer a gatekeeper who can systematically admit or deny information. Consumers program their own print, TV, or radio, and download what they want to their personal devices.
Social media can take many different forms, including Internet forums, blogs, micro blogging, wikis, podcasts, picture-sharing outlets, video, rating and social bookmarking. It is often seen as trendy, accessible and interactive, yet controversial in terms of its reach, intimacy and permanence.
Naturally, this huge potential can be used at a corporate level. The company should carefully research social tools and determine those that overlap with their business objectives and strategy.
Moreover, management should think twice whether it is ready to tackle greater exposure, being in the public eye and handling the unpredictability of ever-changing internet environment.
The practice of using new media may be not as glamorous as it seems at first glance. There are several points to bear in mind before launching a social media campaign, including questions of privacy.
Given the porosity of online environment, it is much harder to direct your message to the necessary audience, as your information runs the risk either of turning into spam or reaching the wrong receiver. With this in mind, we should take an innovative look at the target audience.
Our online and offline communities are very different from each other. Even within these two groups there can be numerous sub-communities we’d like to address. Your message, therefore, can’t be uniform – it should be tailored separately for each online community.
Once two-way communication has been established, another challenge arises for a company and its employees – greater involvement. Involvement means genuine dialogue, which in itself can be challenging.
Dialogue requires disclosure of information that makes the management of the company vulnerable. It is the same as talking on a crowded train, where all your conversations can be heard.
Greater openness seems to be a fearful reality for many companies regardless of the benefits it brings about. Thus, before plunging into the blogosphere, for example, where you take an obligation of providing regular (and eye-catching) posts, make sure you correctly gauge your strengths and don’t promise too much.
Social media provide ways to reach clearly defined business goals.
A social media campaign will not deliver tangible results unless there is a list of clearly defined goals and expectations. As in any business enterprise, research, planning, setting of objectives and evaluation are paramount.
Back in 2008, British Airways initiated a social media campaign for launching OpenSkies, a new airline, which incorporated blogging and feedback-gathering techniques.
Through blog posts the company introduced people to OpenSkies, recruited flight attendants, unveiled cabin classes, shared a time-lapse video of the painting of the first plane, discussed the meal service and shared the experience of the inaugural flight.
The results of social media marketing were impressive: Pre-launch anticipation was achieved; community co-creation of the brand was demonstrated; widespread word-of-mouth and inbound links from forums, blogs and communities became a common thing; and significant advantages in search engine optimization, resulting in substantial organic search traffic, were achieved.
As long as you plan carefully and know exactly what you are pursuing, a social media campaign can deliver tremendous results through two-way dialogue with your target audiences.
In Ukraine, the most popular use of social media by companies is by use of traditional marketing in social networks, which takes the form of a monologue and excludes interactive communication. Increasingly popular is social media marketing, involving communication between the brand and the audience – a great way to get feedback.
What is really lacking is involving marketing, which implies not only communication between the brand and the audience, but also the interaction within the audience itself.
When people are talking about your company and you can watch what they are saying, you have a great tool for assessing their real opinions about what you’re getting right and wrong.
Olga Pikulska is public relations manager at Paritet law firm in Kyiv. She can be reached at [email protected]
