Brief introduction to social media

I was asked, at short notice, to give a brief presentation on social media at a bootcamp for students who had business ideas that they wanted to develop. That was a bit of a challenge, as I could easily talk for hours on social media, but I only had half an hour!

There are plenty of good guides on social media and how to use it effectively. Its a very fast changing field, and I am definitely not an expert, so my talk was based on my own experience. 

ducklings
This may seem like a random photo, but this little gathering was outside the window of the meeting room!

What is social media?

There are so many answers to that question, but I would say that it is an ever growing range of on-line platforms that allow people to communicate with each other.

Common Platforms and who uses them

It took about a minute for the students to come up with a much longer list!! However the ones listed below are the most commonly used.

The important thing to remember when using social media in a business context is that you should not just think about what you use, but think about where your customers are, and where they are going to be (its an always changing environment).

Take a look at what your competitors are doing, and what other companies in your sector (or who target similar markets) are doing.

You should develop a social media strategy and plan which platforms you will use, how you will use them and how frequently you will use them and post to them. When planning a specific campaign, its a good idea to draw up a grid listing platforms to be used, timeline and content to be written.

  • LinkedIn (business to business) – everyone should have a good, professional profile in LinkedIn- my intro to LinkedIn
  • Twitter (business (B2B, B2C), consumers, everyone, social) – if you are not using Twitter, you really should be. Don’t wait until you think you are ready to use if for your business, just jump in and start using it right now! Its very easy to create and run separate twitter accounts, so start with a personal one.  Twitter tips, more tips
  • Facebook (business (B2C), consumers, everyone, social)
  • Pinterest (some business (B2C), social, everyone, focus on images)
  • Tumblr (social)
  • Blogs – WordPress, Blogger etc (widely used by business and for social use, emphasis on text)
  • Snapchat (teenagers, social)
  • Instagram (mostly social, images)
  • YouTube (everyone, video, owned by Google)
  • Flickr (images, owned by Yahoo)
  • Google+ (google fans, not nearly as big a platform as Facebook & Twitter, but  there are a lot of users)
  • Vimeo (everyone, academic, small business, charities)
  • User forums (special interest, eg health issues, cars, gaming, geek/tech stuff

What can you do with social media?

Communicate
Network – customers, partners, employees, everyone!
Market research
Broadcast
Listen

General principles of using social media for business

  • Remember it’s two directional; its not about just pushing your message out, but about having a proper dialogue with customers.
  • Its usually very polite and courteous (trolls* excepted!!) *trolls are people who look for  arguments and try to upset people – don’t rise to the bait!
  • It’s 24/7
  • People expect a very rapid response
  • Bad news can travel very fast
  • Openness, sharing, collaboration are key
  • Hard to keep things private, so might as well share on your terms
  • Opportunity to delight your customer, champions on your behalf
  • Be a human being, don’t hide behind the company
  • Sense of humour very subjective – use with extreme caution (be human, know your customer)
  • Know when to take a discussion offline (Re: trolls and handling bad news)

Examples

Things move very fast, and its very easy to find examples of good, bad and positively disastrous examples of social media use; just Google ‘social media disasters. Here’s a round-up from Mashable of their top 11 Social Media disasters of 2012

Found this great infographic on what content to use on each channel

Take a look at what is happening at Wimbledon just now (Jun 2013) how they are using SM, twitter camera behind the scenes. Fatbuzz has written a great blog about it.

Vital tasks that all young businesses need to do

Fledgling

I was one of the judges at the Scottish heat of the Lloyds TSB Enterprise Awards today, and was really impressed with the standard of the entries. Everyone gave such impressive, confident pitches. 

I was also asked to give a short talk on ‘What are the vital tasks that young businesses need to undertake in order to succeed?‘  I wrote this in preparation but ended up ‘winging it’ as usual, despite the butterflies in my stomach. Apologies to people in the audience if I rambled on; clearly I had not put as much work into my preparation as the finalists who were pitching.

Anyway, these are just my thoughts, please let me know if you agree, and do add your own ‘vital tasks’ too. 

Find out what you really care about

What does success look like to you? Is it about making lots of money, is it about responding to a social issue? If you don’t care about your business, why should anyone else?

Plan

I’m not talking about writing a 64 page business plan that goes into minute detail and quotes endless market research statistics here. But you do need a guide for where you want to be, and how you are going to get there. At SIE, we favour the Business Model Canvas which is a very simple tool for mapping out the essential elements you need to consider.

Don’t be afraid to change your plan as you go. Sometimes, as you gain knowledge of what your customers and market really want, you need to change direction. But don’t keep changing direction. If you have to change too often, perhaps you need a complete rethink. Pivot, don’t spin!

Get Customers

If you don’t have customers, you don’t have a business! Your product or service may not be ready yet, but the sooner you start to look for customers, the sooner you will know if your business idea has traction. But they have to be the right sort of customers, the sort that pay you money and appreciate you. Successful businesses want to get repeat business and referrals.

Communicate

Do your potential customers/market know what you are selling? Is your message (and your product) simple to understand? Are you listening to what they are saying? Communication is a two way process, and listening to what customers want is a vital part of becoming a successful business (unless you are Ryanair!).

Get some money

Of course you need money to succeed, and the best money to get is from paying customers. However that may take a while, so what do you do to keep going in the meantime?

For those of you who have not been successful in this competition, don’t give up. Your businesses have great potential and there is plenty you can do without a lot of money. You don’t always need as much as you think. Think about what else you have, skills that you can share in order to get something in return. What help and resources you can you get? Maybe you can partner with someone? Don’t be afraid to ask – you need to become a ‘master asker’ (my favourite definition of an entrepreneur).

Grow

Staying still is not an option. You may be perfectly happy in your little niche, but If you don’t plan to grow, eventually someone will come along and take your business away. The world is a big place, but its accessible, so don’t be afraid to go beyond borders. Keep challenging yourself to take the next step, and the next, and the step after that. Be prepared to move outside your comfort zone – its only uncomfortable for a while.

Be the best

You probably already are an expert in something, whether that is whisky, wedding dresses or computational linguistics. But you need to be the best you can be in your business. Customers (yes, them again) need you to solve their problems and want to believe they are getting the best solution. What’s your USP, or ‘unique selling point’? What can you offer that no-one else can?

Find advisors you can trust

It’s great that there are plenty of people who will give you help and advice, It could be a bank manager, someone from a support organisation, even a friend or a family member. They may have a vested interest, they may be completely impartial. Listen to what they say, but also trust your own judgement. They may be highly recommended, but they need to be right for you. Take time to reflect. Sometimes the advice you get is wrong – you need to be able to believe in yourself and trust yourself above all.

Finally, just do it!

You won’t get everything right, every time, but you will always learn and do better the next time.