Let's talk social media

You can hardly go to a conference as a PR or marketing professional that isn’t dominated by discussions about social media. You generally have two camps in attendance – the skeptics and the believers.

The believers are often the speakers and the first few rows of people in attendance. The rest are the skeptics sitting in the back rolling their eyes and asking, “How is this going to produce real ROI? My executives will not give me the resources to maintain 175 Facebook pages and 175 Twitter accounts without proof that it's going to produce a significant return.”

Which camp am I in? I’m standing outside the meeting room, wondering when people will realize that the answer to social isn’t yay or nay. The real answer is – it depends.

It depends on what you want to achieve. Just like every other tool we use in marketing and PR, social media isn’t the magic bullet. There are no magic bullets.

Social media is a tool that can help you achieve certain objectives and the best way to start using it is to have an objective you can achieve partially through social media. Starting any other way will only lead to frustration and failure.

For example, if your objective is to sell more product, lease more apartments or sign more contracts without giving any discounts, social media might not necessarily help you meet your objective. At least not in a direct, immediate fashion.

But if your objective is to raise awareness of your product or brand, create word-of-mouth brand buzz or engage your customers in a more personal way, then it can and will help you do so with the right strategy. (Of course, if you have these objectives, you believe the result will be more revenue and profit. It’s just a different philosophy on ways to achieve results from the direct approach.)

With the right strategy, you can easily strengthen your brand through social media. All you need to do is give your customers an incentive (or compelling reason) to follow you. And you’ll need more reasons or one that lasts, so they don’t get tired of hearing from you and click on that daunting hide posts button.

This is easier said than done, so you should contact a professional for some assistance. Jakel Communications can help. Contact our Colorado PublicRelations Firm today.