The easy answer to this question is yes! Reports have shown that over half of internet
users have social accounts across multiple platforms (Social Media, 2015). In addition, these users expect companies to
have a presence on these platforms. The
majority of users expect brands to be on at least three social media sites
(Delzio, 2014). This can be seen in the
graph below.
Before companies sign up for three sites, it’s
important to understand specific user expectations. First, there are more than three social media
sites where users want to see companies.
In addition, users don’t want to just see a company online but they
expect the company to interact with the audience. If a user asks a question, they are looking
for a response. The majority of
customers want a response the same day (Delzio, 2015). If the company doesn’t respond this can
damage the relationship between the company and the customer. Thirty eight percent of users will feel more
negative towards the company and 60% will express this anger which could spread
through the community (Consumers Will, 2013).
What
does this mean?
All this information means that companies need to
evaluate if they can successfully place their business on social media
platforms. The company has to be
prepared to update their account on a regular basis. If they don’t provide updates customers won’t
believe they truly care about their audience.
In addition, they need to update it with the right information. Ensure it’s relevant to the audience in order
to keep them engaged. This engagement
will then create conversations between companies and their audience. Companies then need to listen and respond to
comments as they build future relationships (Jones, 2013).
So what should companies do if they don’t have time to
manage multiple social media platforms?
Prioritize
their presence
Every company should plan on expanding to multiple
platforms. However, it will take time to
get the resources needed to be successful.
Therefore, companies need to determine where they should start as they
grow their programs. This could vary
depending on the company but the following information should help companies
look in the right direction.
Facebook
Facebook is still the
king of social media. The platform has
the most active users in comparison to any other social media website (Kemp,
2015). These users are usually checking
for information often as 70% of Facebook users sign in daily (Social Media,
2015). It’s also the platform with the
highest expectation of a company’s presence (Delzio, 2015). If you think your audience is on another
social media website, you might want to ensure they aren’t on Facebook as
well. That’s because Facebook has the
highest crossover rate for other social platforms. Their crossover rate tends to range in the
89%-94% range when looking at the users of other major social platforms
(Arneal, 2015). With the dominating user
presence, companies need to ensure they have a Facebook page.
Who’s
Next?
From a user expectation
level, Twitter would be the next platform companies want to enter (Delzio,
2014). However, the amount of active
users gets closer with the rest of the social networks. Therefore, it’s important for companies to
research their targeted audience and determine how that matches up with each
site. Twitter has slightly more women
users and a large presence in the 26-34 year old age range. Pinterest also has more female users but does
a better job at targeting an older audience.
LinkedIn would be a network that has more men signed in. However, each of these networks are used for
different reasons which could affect the characteristics of the audience.
There won’t be one answer
for which network is the best to expand into so companies will need to
determine what’s best for them based on their targeted audience. Once they do expand, they will need to
prioritize their resources based on the opportunities. Company can determine the opportunity by
evaluating the amount of users and interactions their brand obtains on each
platform. Another analysis could be
looking at the company’s share of voice to determine the growth opportunity. If companies set goals, this will help determine
the analysis needed to form future strategies and resources.
Join
when you’re ready
A lot of top brands
didn’t join every social media network at once or when they first came
out. Additional brand content is great
but the objective of the content is to create conversations. This is when companies form relationships
with their audience (Novak, 2010). Nike
is an example of a large company that took this approach. Nike is the largest sportswear company in the
world with millions of social media followers.
However, they didn’t gain all of their fans because they had a popular
brand name. Instead it was because they
had a strategy.
Nike made sure they were
prepared and had a strategy before placing their main brand in social media
platforms. An examples can be seen when
the company joined Twitter. In December of 2011 Nike opened a Twitter account
for its overall brand name. Previously,
they had tested the platform with smaller Twitter accounts focused on induvial
sports but wanted to understand the platform before getting a main
account. This allowed the company to
learn about the relationships Twitter could build and how they could interact
(Wasserman, 2011). Some thought they
were late to the game but in reality they joined when they were ready.
In the first six months
Nike was able to come out running as they gained hundreds of thousands of
followers. Some fans came because of the
company name but Nike earned a lot of their followers. They did this by tweeting several times a day
with general tweets and replies to individual fans. It was their way of connecting with the
audience and keeping them engaged.
Another way the company showed they cared was by sharing content from
their fans (Wakefield, 2012). The
company wasn’t trying to figure out how to use this channel, instead they came
out with a strategy to own the channel from the start.
Nike continues to look at
expansion opportunities in social media.
The company knows it has to invest in resources to continue being effective. This can be seen as part of their TV and
print advertising budget was moved over to digital and social media. Part of this budget will help them staff the
social department in order to continuing responding to user engagements. A final way they continue to show their
understanding of social media is by concentrating on the right types of content. Nike hires storytellers for their social
department to help keep content engaging and interesting (Smith, 2014). This isn’t a company who has social media
accounts because they are supposed to have them. The company has social media accounts to help
drive their strategy of connecting with their audience and building better
relationships. Every company won’t have
the testing luxuries Nike has but they can all do research to better position
themselves for success.
Conclusion
Social media accounts can be powerful tools that allow
companies to connect with their audience.
They are a big responsibility as the audience has high expectations for
companies. Therefore, a company’s goal
should be to expand on each social media platform that makes sense based for
the industry and targeted audience.
However, they should only expand when they are ready to interact with
fans and release content that is worth viewing.
References:
Arneal, L. (2015, February 6). Your
Social Media Audience-Who's Using What and How Much. Retrieved November 8,
2015, from
http://www.nonprofithub.org/social-media/social-media-audience-whos-using-much/
Consumers Will Punish Brands that
Fail to Respond on Twitter Quickly. (2013, October 29). Retrieved November 8,
2015, from
http://www.lithium.com/company/news-room/press-releases/2013/consumers-will-punish-brands-that-fail-to-respond-on-twitter-quickly
Delzio, S. (2014, December 29). New
Social Media Research Shows What People Expect From Brands. Retrieved November
8, 2015, from
http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/social-media-research-shows-what-people-expect-from-brands/
Jones, K. (2013, July 29). 5 Reasons
Why Your Business Shouldn't Be On Social Media. Retrieved November 8, 2015,
from
http://marketingland.com/5-reasons-why-you-should-not-be-on-social-media-52585
Kemp, S. (2015, January 21).
Digital, Social & Mobile Worldwide in 2015. Retrieved November 8, 2015,
from http://wearesocial.net/blog/2015/01/digital-social-mobile-worldwide-2015/
Novak, C. (2010, July 27). Why conversation, not
content, is king. SocialMediaToday.com. Retrieved November 9, 2015 from http://socialmediatoday.com/wordspring/152636/why-conversation-not-content-king
Palmer, M. (2015, April 28). How
social media sites compare as advertising platforms - FT.com. Retrieved
November 9, 2015, from http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/91a471be-ea87-11e4-96ec-00144feab7de.html#axzz3qv7X9x8a
Smith, J. (2014, July 21). Social
Media & Digital: Nike Doesn't Just Do It. They Get It. Retrieved November 8,
2015, from
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140721193207-42400039-social-digital-nike-doesn-t-just-do-it-they-get-it
Social Media Update 2014. (2015,
January 9). Retrieved November 8, 2015, from
http://www.pewinternet.org/files/2015/01/PI_SocialMediaUpdate20144.pdf
Wakefield, K. (2012, June 8). Nike
Scores Big on Twitter. Retrieved November 8, 2015, from
https://contently.com/strategist/2012/06/08/nike-scores-big-on-twitter/
Wasserman, T. (2011, December 30).
Just Did It: Nike Finally Opens a Twitter Account. Retrieved November 8, 2015,
from http://mashable.com/2011/12/30/nike-twitter-account/#XYshgqk35Gq4
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