Is Social Media a real ‘Media’ channel…no!

Proceed with care if you wish to manipulate social sites for commercial gain. Transferring the usual brand guidelines into this environment can generate interest for all the wrong reasons.

If you want to enjoy the goodwill of a specific audience there needs to be some genuine connection, bringing clear benefits through the new association. “Marketing” as if this was a standard media outlet will not work and it will be seen from some distance and promptly rejected – regardless of the historical strength of “the brand”.

Facebook also has its limitations; for instance, a fan focused environment with no fans to exchange views will not inspire and is likely to fade from view very quickly.

However, assuming you know the profile of the group well, you have something to offer and the brands visibility does not have to be the key factor, then clearly these environments have a lot to offer.

However do not underestimate how much time you will need to commit to this route, the more successful ventures are constantly updated with topical information, which in turn needs to be reviewed and changed according to feedback…views that you cannot control!

Social media need not be limited to the bigger sites (Facebook et al). While the phrase social media has largely been attributed to these companies, and by association ‘is’ these companies, it has in fact been around for a very long time. Social media is the communication and exchange of views, often in public, over the internet. Therefore social media arguably began with the first email that was ever replied to.

Usenet, a worldwide distributed Internet discussion system, came into being soon after email was invented and was meant as a way of storing and archiving email conversations.

Internet forums have performed a similar function for decades, and still form a very important part of social media on the internet. Bespoke forums are easier to control and moderate than commercial social media such as Facebook.

Let’s take an example. NTL, the UK ISP swallowed by VirginMedia, was once renowned for slightly indifferent service. One disgruntled user setup a forum (nthellworld.co.uk) to allow other users air their grievances and document their problems.

Rather than sending in the lawyers, NTL chose to negotiate with the site owner. The outcome was favourable as not only did they buy the site,and keep it running, they employed the owner to run it for them.

Doing this allowed them to control their brand and message, _and_ any negative feedback. This would have been altogether more tricky on a site like Facebook.

We have experience, and have taken part in, all types of social media. We also develop the supporting management processes and content tools to ensure the pages are topical and generate a ROI.