News and Features
|
Sagefrog has a blog on its website. The Archer Group reaches out on Twitter.
|
The business case for social media, part 2: How companies use blogs and Twitter
To be effective, keep it real, keep it honest and use caution
Within minutes — seconds even — of the iPad’s unveiling, the comments were running fast and furious. Most revolved around Apple’s choice of a name. Others wondered about the price, the features and the need. By the time reporters filed their daily newspaper stories, thousands of people had already shared the relevant information.
Behold the power of blogging, or in this case, micro-blogging on Twitter, which creates a virtual worldwide forum in which to discuss a topic and share information. A blog — short for “Web log” — started as an online diary, a way to express thoughts and opinions. In the corporate world, blogs are used to market a product or service and to promote a company culture.
In a 2009 survey by Technorati, a blog search engine, 71% of those who maintain blogs for their own business or the company they work for reported that blogging had increased company visibility within their industries. Fifty-eight percent said the blog made them better known in their industry, and 56% said their blog helped the company position itself as an industry leader.
The popularity of blogs lies in their personality as much as the quality of information being shared. Blogs are written by individuals who have a name and a face and a distinctive voice.
“Customers want to interact with people, not nameless, faceless brands,” says Lee Mikles, CEO and Co-Founder of The Archer Group, an interactive marketing company in Wilmington. And each interaction has the potential to spur other interactions, as the blog’s followers distribute the information to their own followers.
Old Faithful Blogs
Blogs are one of the oldest forms of social marketing and remain one of the most significant, says Mark Schmukler, Managing Partner of Sagefrog Marketing Group in Doylestown. Sagefrog recently used the blog on it website to announce the results of its survey on outsource marketing and to promote the company’s trade show and public relations services.
Mikles says blogging gives a “real voice” to a website, and it shows potential customers that the contributors are passionate about their industry. The Archer Group’s blog recently featured an employee discussing Flash versus HTML5 and what the iPad means to developers. Another employee writes about Facebook as a business marketing tool.
Transcend United Technologies in Springfield, a division of Fastech Integrated Solutions, keeps blog entries short, about four to five paragraphs. “You must organize your message as a company,” says Robert Boyer, Chief Marketing Officer. Boyer also takes advantage of the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) benefits of blogging. “A body of blogs is a good way for people to find us on the Web,” he says.
Search engines like Google pick up blog topics, so Boyer maintains a list of strategic keywords related to the topic and his industry — such as “disaster recovery” or “managed backup services” — and makes sure to include those keywords in blogs. That way, when searchers type in key phrases, a Transcend blog is more likely to pop up in the search results.
Search engines look for frequency of updates as well as keywords, which is why regular updates are important. “It gives you something new on the site, plus it keeps you moving in the search registries — that’s the larger piece,” says Matt McCloskey, Senior Vice President of Sales for Blue Bell-based Turnberry Solutions. McCloskey previously managed a blog for another company and plans to launch one for Turnberry this year.
The Flutter of Twitter
An abbreviated version of a blog, Twitter restricts entries to 140 characters. Some see Twitter as just another Facebook status update that tells “friends” what you’re up to. For businesses, however, successful use of Twitter requires a focus on information of real interest to your followers. “No one cares if you have a ham sandwich for lunch,” says Mikles, who has a book coming out this month called “Engage Your Brand: How Smart Marketers Are Using Social Marketing To Drive Their Businesses Forward.”
Twitter has a “fast twitch” profile, says Skip Shuda, CEO of Team and a Dream, a Wayne firm whose specialties include social media, Internet marketing and marketing strategies. The bite-sized message must be concise, Shuda says. Mikles agrees: “You have to think about how to make it interesting.”
Shuda suggests that business leaders who are considering a Twitter presence for their companies start by “listening” on the site. Choose businesses, organizations and experts linked to your industry or interest. Read their tweets. The use of hashtags — the # symbol before a word — makes Twitter searchable by tagged words. Consider #ipad, for instance.
Second, Shuda suggests, use Twitter to identify trends in your industry. “If you’re selling candlesticks, you might notice there’s a lot of conversation about using candlesticks in staging homes for a quick real estate sale,” Mikles says. Just perusing what others post on Twitter might spark marketing ideas for your business. And it will clue you in to the types of things people are talking about.
You’re ready to set up a Twitter account and begin tweeting when you know you have something to say that followers will value. Mikles offers an apt analogy: “If you’re going to crash a party, you have to bring a bottle of wine.”
The Valley Forge Convention and Visitors Bureau began using Twitter to let followers know about news and events. If there’s a bike race, the bureau tweets about it. If a travel writer is in town, the visit may warrant a tweet. “We’re basically generating buzz about what people might not know about otherwise,” says Bailey Fucanan, Director of Communications, who with her colleagues post tweets about six times a day. “We can put it out less than an hour after we find out about it.”
Careful Considerations
The software is free for these tools, but writing blogs and tweeting takes time and discipline. Fastech’s blog has been handled by one person, but it is becoming too much work. Boyer would like to expand the contributors to ease the load. He acknowledges that using multiple contributors will require more attention to editing and fact-checking to ensure that the “tone is right and accurate.”
Shuda notes that big companies are introducing social media units, but he cautions that there’s a tradeoff between a team effort and a single, consistent, authentic voice. He also warns that the danger of an unintended release of sensitive information, or the inappropriate posting of personal information, increases as more people are involved.
Shuda recommends that companies draft a social media policy. In the most Draconian approach, a company may forbid certain employees from any type of social networking or social media posts. A milder version is to require employees to candidly state they do not speak for the company if they are posting personal blogs on an industry matter.
A final caution: While you might assume your clients will appreciate the extra promotion if you blog or tweet about their project, that is a dangerous assumption. Shuda says you should always ask permission from the client.
Transparency is key, Schmukler agrees. When Sagefrog posts client news on Twitter, Schmukler either puts “client” in parentheses or simply states the company is a client. “The golden rule,” Schmukler says, “is not to try and fool people.”
Next issue: Pulling it all together with social media tools, such as Tweetdeck, and enhancing the message with services such as YouTube, Flickr, widgets and social bookmarks
