A little perspective...
When I started here at Hudson Horizons two summers ago I was still an egg on Twitter; Facebook had ONLY 500 million members and two of my favorite social media tools, Pinterest and Instagram were unheard of. My oh my how fast social media has grown, changed and continues to impact the way our world communicates. In summer of 2010 I had no idea what I was getting into and almost two years later, I feel so fortunate as an indecisive English graduate that this industry found me and that I am able to help businesses recognize the power of leveraging social media.
What is social media?
I remember writing an article "What is Social Media" in early 2011. My very "text-book" explanation of social media was high level and somewhat informative; however, looking back at the article I see now that I was missing core principles that will help social media continue to bring success to businesses and individuals around the world.
Social media is more than just tweeting, posting to Facebook, signing up your business on all major social channels and even having "cool" graphics. Social media is a channel of hope. A place where individuals can become YouTube sensations not even over night, but within hours; where social good is recognized and promoted; and where businesses despite our economic state can thrive and stand out amongst the competition no matter how big or how small.
As our lives are more and more consumed with technology on a daily basis, social media is becoming our direct source for news, daily social interactions, shopping outlets and many other past "off-line-only" activities. This means that brands, more than ever need to find a way to capture the attention of this online audience.
I think it would be wise that while we are full-throttle into this real-time, digital age we need to always consider our basic human rules about interacting with one another, before computers faciliated these actions.
Social Media is your playground...play nicely.
Small brand, big brand, new brand...all rules should apply. Think of social media as your new playground. You need to make friends, so start the conversations, invoke engagement by asking questions and really get to know your "friends" so you can meet new friends.
Social media is two-fold and once you gain one friend or technically speaking a "fan" or "follower," you're also gaining the potential to break out to his or her network of friends. However, the key here is to make an impact, be unique and be true to your brand by really finding its unique selling points to help drive your message.
Even if you're a big-named brand you need to make an impact within your social community. The beauty of social media is that you can reinvent your brand and be creative enough to gain a competitive edge that will help indirectly bring awareness to your products or services.
Find your channel
Find what works for you. I've had the pleasure of working with a vast array of industries while working here at Hudson Horizons; in doing so, I've had the experience of seeing what works and doesn't work for certain companies. Perhaps you need to tap into the Linkedin community. Many look at Linkedin as a more "professional" social channel where you can find a larger population of people in the law and medical industries.
On the other hand, I've experienced some brands who flourish on Facebook while using Twitter, foursquare and Pinterest as secondary channels to initiate a social strategy to tap into a never ending community of fans who turn into customers.
Find what works best for your brand and remember that many of the social channels can piggy-back off of each other. For example, initiate a photo-contest by asking fans to take a picture by using Instagram. Direct them to use a specific hashtag (#) key word; then ask them to post to Twitter and to Facebook (an easy, one-step process already integrated on Instagram) and you've already increased your social reach exponentially through one fan. Possibilities are endless, you just need to put your thinking caps on!
What's my ROI?
Businesses like to see numbers, I get it! They like to see that the allocated budget for "social media" is well spent and that at the end of the day they are getting some type of return on their investment. Please note, social media takes time; just as you foster friendships on the playground, you need to foster your relationship with fans and advocates on social media platforms.
Additionally, new Google SOCIAL analytics (slowly rolling out) are actually giving businesses the capability to set up "goals" that will allow analytics to track actions from social to your website for tracking if social media is actually working. Analyze your goals through analytics and measure success and failings. What went wrong? What worked?
Be Unique
Nowadays, it seems anyone can be the best [enter industry here] online, but what sets you apart from the competition is the experience you provide on social media which helps bring awareness to your brand in a creative way. Be human, be transparent and really get to know your online community. Drive awareness online in creative and unique ways.
The most successful brands on social media are the ones who are real, transparent, innovative, friendly, trusting and creatively social -- basic principles that make an impact.