Adopting Social Media Within A Company Marketing Plan

From an individual's standpoint, social media sites are all about reaching out and connecting with people. It's a way to easily share the items you wish about your life with others. Whether it's new pictures, family updates, or righteous rants, social media is a way to feel next door to your friends and family who may live thousands of miles away.

But what if you have a business? How can you effectively use social media in your business? Maybe a more telling question is, "How do you NOT use social media in your business?"

The bottom line is that a business will adopt a social media platform in their marketing plan if they can show a return on their investment. Now, that return shouldn't be measured solely like you would measure the ROI on an advertising campaign. In an ad campaign, you have a fixed cost, fixed number of people who will see the message, and a selling proposition. Many campaigns also have a way to track the traffic generated by the specific ad. All these things allow you to see if the ad paid for itself.

But when you look at social media marketing, it encompasses much more than than simply placing an online add on a site like Facebook. It encompasses building and cultivating relationships. This can be more labor intensive for a company than launching an ad campaign, but it will decrease media and advertising expenses.

Here are some ways a business can use social media in their marketing campaign, which should also have a positive impact on ROI, especially over time:

1. Monitor Communications About Your Company- If something is being said about your company, good or bad, chances are good you can find it on social media sites.

2. Interact With Prospects- While traditional advertising is a one-way communication medium, social media is a two-way street. It's truly one of the best ways to generate and foster a real conversation with you and potential clients.

3. Expand Your Visibility And Brand- Companies spend millions to increase their visibility via traditional media advertisement. Social media is another way to spread your visibility far beyond your company's web site.

4. Increase Your Perception As An Expert- Depending on how you use social media, you can easily set yourself up as an expert because of the great information you make available to followers. The viral nature of social media will reward companies that give value to their followers.

5. Quickly Disseminate Information- This can be a blessing or a curse. There is no quicker way to get out information from your company than through social media. However, the ease and speed to disseminate information often removes some of the safeguards of traditional communication methods. Many messages would be changed if the sender were forced to take time to consider the message and many typos/edits would be caught if people didn't fire off a quick message. A hasty message is often regretted, but impossible to totally recall.

These are a few valid ways businesses can use social media within their marketing plan. Large companies pay millions to have agencies or internal departments manage each of these activities. For smaller businesses, it often makes sense to hire a competent social communication expert to manage these activities. But for the savvy business owner, you can use social media yourself to take advantage of their relationship-building nature to bring value to your company.

That said, I do believe traditional marketing still will play a vital role for most companies. But coupled with a savvy social media plan, a company can reach more people at a lower ROI while building long-lasting relationships that will continue to grow over time. It's definitely a strategy that all companies need to incorporate into their business plan.