Social Media is not just for reconnecting with old friends. It is a tool to grow your business and create a greater footprint in your market. The article below explains that. Don't get left behind!
Full-time Facebooking
By Austin Light
CHARLOTTE — Twitter grew a staggering 1,382 percent in the last year. Since starting in 2006, it’s picked up more than 8 million users, according to Nielson Online. Facebook has attracted about 65.7 million users in five years.
With numbers like that, it just makes good business sense to be where the people are, said Brandon Uttley, hired recently by Charlotte marketing firm Wray Ward as the company’s first social media strategist. But that’s often easier said than done.
“Sixty percent of people that sign up for Twitter become inactive after 30 days,” Uttley said. “The LA Times found that that same percentage of people don’t even know what Twitter is…but you’re seeing more companies use it.”
Brandon Uttley, social media strategist, Wray Ward
Twitter is a Web-based communication system, using messages of 140 characters or less that are sent via phones or computers.
Accordingly to Uttley, the high drop-off rate comes from people knowing they should be on Twitter or other social media sites, but not knowing the lingo and culture associated with them. That’s where he comes in.
Uttley is part of a growing profession that helps companies monitor, use and market with social media. Their job description is simple — “connecting people to other people online” — but according to Jason Keath, a prolific Charlotte social media strategist and head of SocialFresh.com, it isn’t a simple task.
Keath maintains that social media management is fast becoming a full-time job as opposed to a low-priority task that can be passed off to an intern.
“I think it is as big as when e-mail came along,” Keath said. “Everyone uses e-mail; it’s expected. There’s etiquette, legalities, even laws associated with it. I think social media is going to be integrated like that into almost every business. Clients will start demanding it.”
Roy Morejon is the founder of B2WE, a social media marketing agency in Charlotte. He said businesses have three options: Hire one person full-time to manage it, hire an agency or third party to manage it, or use existing staff to figure it out.
“I’ve dealt with a lot of them, whether they need their hand held or I’m training a marketing manager in-house,” Morejon said. “[Social media] is not the same as traditional media. It’s more about conversation and less about campaigns.”
Uttley said a company’s best bet is to hire someone or use an agency.
“You can now have a presence in a lot of different places, and they are free or very low cost,” Uttley said. “So the biggest investment here is time.”
Keath maintains that even though social media services are free, businesses shouldn’t skimp on the time they invest to maximize on-line opportunities.
“A lot of people think it is free and they move to it to save money, but if you are going to do it correctly, you have to invest in it time-wise,” Keath said. “Can you afford to invest that time?”
Keath’s SocialFresh.com is working to increase social media awareness among businesses and help them develop skills to use it in a positive way. Social Fresh will host its first conference Aug. 24, a one-day event for marketing professionals with social media speakers from Rubbermaid, Best Buy and other companies.
“It’s quickly becoming a more legitimate industry. From people like myself that are individual consultants all the way up to large companies,” Keath said.
Duke Energy is among several Charlotte corporations hiring social media managers, including GMAC and Bank of America. Duke Energy is providing information through its Twitter feed DukeEnergyStorm, which keeps customers informed of power outages and restoration efforts.
“On Twitter, just from the anecdotal, we’ve got good replies back,” said Michelle Pearson, Duke’s social media director. “We’re still working to formulate where we go from here, and an important part of that is listening to our customers and other important people out there.”
As businesses attract more followers, more will be asked of them when it comes to interaction.
“If you join Twitter and just blast out a bunch of messages about yourself and your company, it’s going to fail,” Uttley said. “It’s about empowering the consumer…they have more of a say in expressing their opinions and getting feedback.”
Monitoring and responding to that feedback can take serious juggling skills, not just because some social media strategists are monitoring multiple platforms — Twitter, Facebook, blogs — but multiple accounts on those platforms as well.
“It’s a 24/7 job. My phone is constantly beeping with updates,” Morejon said. “The Internet doesn’t sleep and people don’t stop talking. You have to engage them and listen to them.”
The job, Keath said, is rewarding.
“It’s a rewarding career path because I’m more or less connecting people and helping people,” Keath said. “I consider myself an idea guy…It’s a great outlet for someone with a lot of ideas to help people.”
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