Outsource My Social Media Marketing

What do you do when it feels like no matter what, employees just arent listening? How can you keep employees motivated through periods of change and instability? How do you tailor messages to different employee groups? On September 17, 2009, Terry McKenzie, Senior Director of Global Employee Communications and Communities at Sun Microsystems, visited with the Graziadio Business Report to answer the questions above and more. Terry McKenzie with Danielle L. Scott

Social media exploded in 2009. Twitter alone grew over 900% this year according to Nielsen Online. Meanwhile, Facebook continued to colonize the world – adding another 50 million users for a total of more than 350 million active users in 180 countries – and 50% of them log onto Facebook every day.

So what will social media be like in 2010? It will get even more popular and more exclusive and it will get more mobile. Here are some trends we could see in the upcoming year:

1. Social media will look less social

As the popularity of social networking grows it will become more exclusive – even “anti-social.” Not everyone will be able to fit on someone’s Twitter list or Facebook friend page and as networks begin to fill with noise, it is likely that changing user behavior will become more common. Maybe it’s not actually less social, but it might look that way as we want to get more value out of our networks without all the clutter.

2. Social Media Goes Offline

One of the biggest potentials of social media is for it to not only connect people online, but facilitate connections offline as well. 2010 will see an increase in location aware applications that blur the line between the web and the real world with networks like Four Square and others.

3. Big Corporations Scale Down

There are a few big companies that have scaled social initiatives beyond marketing or communications initiatives. Twelpforce by Best Buy provides customer support on Twitter. The employees are managed through a custom built system that keeps track of who participates. This is a sign of things to come. More companies will try to cut costs and/or serve customers more effectively through social technology in 2010.

4. Smaller Businesses Ramp Up

More small businesses will see the big bang-for-the-buck they get with social media marketing and capitalize on it next year. Social media marketing is a great equalizer that allows small companies to compete more effectively with large ones.

5. Your company will have a social media policy

If your company doesn’t already have a social media policy in place with specific rules of engagement, it just might have one in 2010. From how to conduct yourself as an employee to what is considered competition, it is likely that you will be seeing a corporate memo about how the company views social media and your participation in it.

6. Mobile devices becomes a social media lifeline

With approximately 70 percent of businesses or workplaces banning social networks and with the simultaneous sale of smart phones on the rise, employees will feed their social media habits with their mobile devices. The old cigarette break will become a “social media break.” As a result, we will see better mobile versions of our favorite social drug of choice.

7. More Social Sharing Means Less Email

Recently, the New York Times iPhone application added sharing functionality that allows users to easily broadcast an article across social networks. Many websites already support this, but you will probably see an increase in this user behavior as it becomes more mainstream. More people will share on these networks instead of using e-mail.

What do you think? Where do you see social media going next year? We would be interested in hearing your thoughts and comments.

Managing your reputation involves using tools and language to improve and/or control how the public views you, your company and those who work for your company.  Reputation management can’t simply be approached from a technology standpoint, or a communications standpoint.  This means that you can’t simply rely on blogs and/or the Internet for reputation management, and you can’t simply rely on press releases or well-planned events.

Tools

Reputation management and online reputation management require the use of certain tools to help repair, create or manage public perception.  Those tools include blogs, social networking, SEO/SEM and more.

Blogs

Having a quality blog works in a couple of ways.  It offers you a medium with which to talk directly to the public, without having to go through the newspapers, magazines, radio or television where your message can be distorted.  You can link your blog to your Website, have as a link on your Website or have it as a completely separate Website.  If you post regularly, not only will that benefit your search engine optimization (SEO), but it will communicate with your public without any outside interference.Being able to talk directly to your audience will greatly enhance your reputation management capabilities, because you can affect opinion with minimal effort.

Social Networking

Websites such as Myspace, Facebook, Twitter and others offer a way to create a community based around or involving your company.  As another form of communication with your audience, social networking sites (also known as Web 2.0) can help you create positive public opinion based around open communication and shared experience.  Quality reputation management doesn’t just focus on force feeding messages, in a perfect world it involves encouraging other people to basically market your business for you.  Social networking can be a tool that accomplishes just that, because it’s based around shared experiences, shared opinions and so forth.  It also doesn’t require the resources that a national publicity campaign would.

SEO/SEM

Search engine optimization and search engine marketing are possibly the two most important tools for online reputation management.  SEO and  SEM utilize pay-per-click technology, keyword usage and even HTML coding to successfully keep your company’s name and services in the top Google search lists.  Keywords should target words related to your company.
Communications
Using your language properly is vitally important.  Whether it’s properly seeding your Web content with keywords or writing a persuasive and eye catching press release, writing your content effectively can mean the difference between molding public opinion and being ignored.  It’s important that you highlight exactly where you’d like your reputation management to go in terms of how you want to influence opinion.  You can write a great press release, or have a Website with great content, but if you aren’t making strong statements and giving positive information, you’ll be wasting your time.  
Outline your goals and try to see what your competition is doing. This may help to give you some ideas as to where you want your messaging to go.  Reputation management can be a huge asset to your company and/or business, if the tools and language involved are used properly.