Social Media 101 for Clients

The folks over at ReadWriteWeb believe Social Media will peak in 2012, but there are a whole slew of organizations who’ve barely dipped their toes in the water. And with that, even more who are hesitating because they’re not sure who ‘owns’ social media, or how multiple departments within an organization can work together.

Should the Client Engage in Social at All?

Despite pressure for every person, place and thing to have a Facebook Page or Twitter account, it’s a mistake to think that it’s right for every business. Before embarking on any social media campaign, your first step should be to determine whether it makes sense as a part of the overall marketing and communications strategy.

What Do We Want to Accomplish through Social Media?

Are you trying to boost sales? Push your message out? Share news? Or, use it as a customer service tool? All of the above? Then this question is of particular importance to you. Whether you’re a member of the marketing, public relations, sales or customer service departments, your end goal should be the same.

Who Should Take the Social Media Lead?

While collaboration among departments—as noted above—is generally ideal, it also prevents your brand message from being diluted. Social Media is about engagement, and as such, it takes time to build quality relationships that can leverage the kind of results typically expected by those in sales departments.

There’s been a strong push among many in PR to lead this effort, and to me, it only seems logical. After all, it’s folks in PR who are the content creators. Social networks simply provide an additional medium by which to share that content.

Can They Build It Together?

The old-school mindset that the goal of sales teams is simply to find prospects and close deals, while PR teams build relationships and publicize products, needs a re-tooling … especially where social media is concerned. Like never before, customer service, marketing, sales, public relations and advertising need to overlap, educate one another, and build a communications strategy together.

About the Author
Kimberly Taylor is Vice President of Administration and Creative Services, and a Partner with Curley & Pynn. She has a wide range of responsibilities supporting both staff and clients, and manages the firm’s day-to-day operations. Additionally, she manages the Creative Services and Production Department and oversees the company blog and social media activities.

Social Media and the Need for New Business Models (briansolis.com)
The role of PR in social media marketing (presentation) (commscorner.com)
When And Where To Use Agency Support For Social Media (pr.typepad.com)

10 comments on “Social Media 101 for Clients”

I think that many different departments can participate in social media (PR, Recruiting, Ops) on different level and engage different customers and content consumers.

Robert – I totally agree. I’ve seen many examples where organizations engage multiple departments (successfully). The one caveat is ensuring that all are working toward the same (or complementary) goals.

I enjoyed this post! I think social media is critical for a company’s success, but should be done according to a plan. There is nothing worse that a half-completed Facebook page or a Twitter with no tweets when it comes to using social media to obtain good PR for a company. If nothing else, I think it is important for all companies to monitor what is being said about their brand on social media sites. Social media has a lot of power to promote positive PR and help avoid negative PR for a brand.

Amanda Coppock
Editor, Platform Online Magazine

Kim Taylor

March 9, 2011 @ 9:09 pm

Amanda,
Just as a plan/strategy is developed for traditional public relations, one should be for social as well. I think your last sentence says it best, though! Thanks so much for taking the time to comment.

Kim Taylor
Curley & Pynn Public Relations

Reply