While having a website these days is practically a “must” for businesses, the question arises as to the effectiveness of social networking sites an effective marketing tool.
Websites can cost money to design and maintain, but social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Linked In and YouTube are free (a plus if you’ve had to trim your marketing budget in this recession). But they also depend on your customers and potential customers to already be using them as well. That might not be as common a practice as someone “Googling” the phrase “portable sanitation” to look for your services.
However, the fact that they are social networking sites means that if you’re on them and you constantly put the word out there about your services, one of your Facebook “friends” or Twitter followers may pass on the good word about your services to their friends – thus, fueling the power of the World Wide Web on your behalf.
Are you new to the concept and don’t know which one to use? If you want to showcase videos of your business or special events, you may want to post on YouTube. Want to get out a brief message? Use Twitter, which limits comments to 140 words. Facebook and MySpace gives you more text space, as well as the ability to upload photos and videos (the latter appeals more to the younger set). LinkedIn is more of a professional networking site.
(You can sign up for Facebook at www.facebook.com; Twitter at www.twitter.com, LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com, MySpace at www.myspace.com and YouTube at www.youtube.com).
Alexandra Townsend uses Facebook and Twitter. She’s the regional sales manager for A Royal Flush, Inc. and ARF Rental Services, Inc. headquartered in Bridgeport, Connecticut.
Townsend has a blog going for her company as well as a Twitter account and a Facebook page. She got onto Facebook and Twitter in the spring, but started a blog in 2007.
Townsend is a “techie” who transitioned her personal interest in social networking into the business realm. She began social networking on behalf of her business after using both Facebook and Twitter for personal reasons.
“Then I started to see more and more companies having accounts,” she notes. “Both are free, so it would be silly to miss that opportunity. I started the blog as a way to inform our customers about our company and the industry. I usually post interesting articles and big events that we
do.”
She says she posts “really weird” articles about portable toilets she thinks people will enjoy reading.
“A blog, in my opinion, is like a free website,” says Townsend. “I can update it at any time and it doesn’t cost anything. It allows me to keep our information up to date. Also, I enjoy blogging, so I figured having a work blog wouldn’t hurt. I thought it may get us new customers at the very
least. The same applies to the Twitter account and Facebook.”
She uses Twitter to look for new special events as well as potential customers.
Townsend says while she can’t say her company has derived any business from the use of social networking, she knows people are reading her blog because she tracks the numbers.
“We usually get 40 to 100 readers per week,” she says.
In marketing – as in any sector of a business – one must calculate whether there’s a good enough return on the investment of time or money to make it worthwhile.
“They are all so easy that it takes almost no time to maintain,” says Townsend. “By far, the blog takes up the most of my time but that is because I update it three times per week. I think it is important to be consistent.”
Townsend also points out that it takes time to set up the blog. But she finds that Google’s Blogger is very user-friendly. “They give you suggestions for layouts and you just have to fill in your information,” she says. “The same applies to Facebook and Twitter, except that I am much more lenient with those. I only update those when I think of something interesting to talk about or if I have event pictures to post.”
Kathie Christ, owner of Crown Restrooms “The Purple Potty People” in Woodstock, Illinois, started using Facebook a few months ago to promote her company by trying out its “fan” feature (on online survey of how many people are fans of a person, place or thing).
Christ says it’s too early to tell if her company’s gotten any business from using social networking. But she points out that it didn’t take that long to set it up, so there was not a lot of time investment on her part.
A word of caution about social networking sites: be careful about mixing business messages with personal messages. It’s one thing to write about a big special event your company is servicing, but it is not in your best interest to share personal information that may dissuade a potential client.
It’s best to keep business and personal accounts separate.
Marketing experts say social networking for marketing has its benefits and drawbacks.
If you see potential customers using social media, then using it yourself as a marketing tool makes sense, says J.W. Arnold, principal with PRDC Marketing and Public Relations.
“For many consumer industries, Facebook is replacing the yellow pages, but for others - especially B2B - social media like Twitter might enhance existing customer relationships and services, but not necessarily drive new business.”
“Social networking - and social media - allows a business to engage in a conversation with its customers instead of the typical monologue. Such a conversation can be used to educate customers while allowing the business to better understand their needs and expectations,” says Dave Nelsen, president of Dialog Consulting Group.
“Engaging in social networking is not like producing a product brochure or press release – ‘set it and forget it’ . Rather it's an honest conversation that requires continuing participation. And like any conversation, neither party is fully in control of what happens. That is an
intimidating concept for marketers accustomed to unilaterally controlling the message.”
Social media is still unproven and ROI is very difficult to measure, points out Lisa Nirell, the founder of EnergizeGrowth. She shares two of 11 strategies in her new book, “EnergizeGrowth NOW: The Marketing Guide to a Wealthy Company” to help business owners successfully launch a social media strategy.
Schwerdtfeger acknowledges that although ROI is difficult to measure, “a sure bet
is to monitor the conversation about the brand. As the conversation expands, so too will the business' prospects for revenue growth.”
Nirell says a company owner should know his or her intended outcome – or purpose - before launching a social media strategy.
For example, those in the portable sanitation business may want to use social networking for the purpose of building a community of loyal
customers.
Second, develop a consistent, impressive company profile using only a few sites.
“If you join just two social media sites and contribute to the conversations, you will gain more traction than if you have outdated impressions across 10 sites that are damaging your brand,” she advises.
Some experts believe that social networking really doesn’t pack much of a punch for marketing efforts.
“There is little to no statistical data that supports a return on investment in social media,” says Drew Stevens, PhD, a sales and marketing expert.
“While it might assist in conducting some brand visibility, the only true method for marketing return is relationships with clients.”
His research indicates “there is much ado about nothing on social media,” Stevens says. “While it is helpful in building community, the larger
issue for a marketer to address is whether the clients are there. Marketers fail when they cease looking at target market selection.”
Bretton Holmes, president of Holmes World Media, believes social media can enhance current marketing efforts.
It’s also a “green” form of keeping the message out there for those who prefer that approach, Holmes says.
“My experience is that it is best utilized as a supplement to more traditional forms of marketing. As we move further into things like Twitter, the things that will ultimately stand out are those that provide the greatest amount of information in the least intrusive way, such as traditional
media outlets.”
Holmes cautions that “dealing with a barrage of social media activity in these various places can be a real pain, and companies run the risk of not only missing out on possible opportunities, but having to hire someone full-time for each social network they are on just to keep up.”
“The online media have been besotted with ‘social networking’ for more than a year - most recently atwitter over Twitter,” says Miki Dzugan of Rapport Online. “In over 12 years of internet marketing experience, I have observed the power of social networking from my first exposure to the ‘Net (social networking has always been a part of the Internet). Using social interaction for commercial promotion is equally old. What was once called ‘guerrilla marketing’ is now ‘marketing through the social Web’."
What Dzugan suggests portable sanitation operators do to make the most of their online experience is to get reviews. Many websites that list businesses provide the opportunity for customers to rate their experience, such as Google Maps and Yahoo Local.
“Any business that has a yellow pages listing is probably listed on Google Maps and Yahoo Local, even if they do not have a website,” points out Dzugan. “These listings provide the opportunity for customers to sign in and rate your service. Any business that has happy customers should get those customers to give them high ratings on the local search sites. This shows up as stars next to the business listing and helps the listing to stand out from others in search results.
“Search engines are now on par in use to printed yellow pages for finding local businesses,” says Dzugan. “These rated listings will get more eyeballs than anyone's porta-potty video on YouTube! Although, there's a thought.”
A.J. Gerritson is a partner at 451 Marketing, which provides lead generation for companies that sell business-to-business by leveraging social media technologies through search marketing strategies.
“Most of our clients who use social media to influence purchasing decisions seem to measure ROI with only one metric of success: leads,” says Gerritson. “The benefit is that most platforms are free and will cost nothing but time and there is a potential of reaching a large amount of
prospective customers and engaging them in two-way conversation.”
The risk?
"Companies are at the mercy of their employees who have the capacity to destroy the brand they work so hard to develop and maintain in one seemingly meaningless click of a mouse,’ says Gerritson. “If a company decides to move forward with a social media campaign, they should have two things in place: a social media strategy and a social media protocol for employees to set boundaries and designate the employees who will carry the companies "voice" online.”
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