If social media can topple a government,

just think what it can do for or to your business

Well have you been posting on those social networks? If yes, did you grab any attention, did people want to share what you had to say, did people take any action? Do you even know? Do you care?

And if you have not posted anything, so what! Either way what's the impact to you and your business? 

Take the Lego story - an example of not so good  - Lego's 'pink ghetto' draws fire over gender-specific marketing . Lego launched that pink stuff to appeal to young girls which created quite an uproar. It took Lego quite awhile to engage in a positive way with their prospective customers, ie the ones with the money   - the mothers of those girls. And it was only after an online petition of 25K or so signatures was collected. During that time, even those of us with adult kids got involved socially by posting, commenting and signing e-petitions.

The lesson - Social Media can hurt you, so be prepared.

Then there's the other example of L'Oreal Paris Canada whose VP, CMO & CCO - Ms Marie-Josée Lamothe presented a case study of ROI at Social Media Week in Toronto in February. She explained they started about 3 years ago and for the first couple of years, it was simply L'Oreal pushing out their new product messages and updates but that changed last year. And now there is a large interactive following -  340,885 likes  and those fans are helping promote their products in a big way. She told the audience  that at times they were not sure that this Social Media thing would work but they are now moving ahead . Well with an audience of 340K, something is working don't you think?

The lesson - Get in the Game

So how are you gonna' do that? By providing a simple way for customers, prospects and suppliers to easily engage with you. You know, join the conversation. And at the same time you will be sharing  stories about your products and services which really is just part of marketing and branding.

'a simple way to engage' hmm  First you need to figure out where your customers, prospects or competitors are, socially that is and what they are saying. Here's one way, run some google alerts for a week or so.  How? Sign up for a google account if you don't have one, create a google alert using the terms/words  that are relevant for your industry i.e.widgets (just kidding) and you will be emailed a condensed listing of whenever those words/terms are mentioned out there. Review that content. You can easily change the criteria if you need to. You will likely be surprised at what you learn and who is posting stuff about your industry and where they are posting it. Then next, pick a social media platform like Facebook and just setup an account; then watch what everyone else is doing and how they do it.  Spy on, I mean review what your industry is doing. Again you will likely learn a bunch.

The lesson - You are now in the Game

And as for the Arab Spring, don't let that happen to you and your brand. Check out this interactive timeline from the Guardian.

Stay tuned for 'Monitoring and Measuring (haha) Your Social Media l Media ' #2 in the Digital Collaboration Series

by Elsie Whitelock owner and CEO of Beyond Parallel Design

Elsie provides digital marketing and Social Media plus web site design services to small businesses

http://beyondparalleldesign.com/

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