The presence of companies in social networks is an opportunity to get closer to customers or consumers and establish a more direct relationship with them. All this at a relatively lower cost than traditional channels and in a simple way. However, they also have risks that must be taken into account.
The foremost opportunity and, at the same time, represents a risk is two-way communication. This entails the need to establish a corporate communication strategy, considering that now the recipients will interact with the brand and that any management error could erode our image.
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What Is Social Media Management?
Social networks are excellent communication tools that require effort and dedication to achieve the expected results. Monitoring the company’s activity in networks and timely follow-up are essential tasks to guarantee the correct functioning of the strategy and the achievement of the objectives.
For this reason, the management of corporate profiles on social networks should be a priority in the media strategy since the importance of social networks for brands increases every day. We must remember that social networks allow immediate and direct communication to be established between the company and the client or user, which can be a double-edged sword if it needs to be worked correctly.
Why Is It Important To Manage Social Networks?
Once the decision has been made as a company to be present on social networks, it is essential to commit to the care and management of said profiles. It is not about being in these communication channels, but a clear strategy and proper management must accompany it. At this point, it is also necessary to dedicate a space to understanding how social networks influence companies. As we have already mentioned, any error in managing the company’s profile on social networks could erode the public’s imagination.
Benefits Of Social Networks For The Company
Companies’ use of social networks has clear benefits: they are a lower-cost way of relating to our target audience and an effective tool for spreading brand awareness. Put risks and benefits in a balance. The benefits of social networks for companies are more significant.
But, beyond the advertising use that companies make of Facebook, Instagram or Twitter, social networks are used to have closer contact with their customers and to communicate to the market the launch of new products and services earlier and at a lower cost than by conventional media.
Even companies, especially in the world of technology, use networks and blogs to incorporate customers into designing and developing new products successfully.
The benefits are apparent, experts say, but so is the challenge for a company to take the plunge and create social media profiles. Therefore, in companies’ different uses of social networks, some questions arise, such as: In which networks to have a presence? How to coordinate this presence with corporate communications and the rest of the marketing strategy? How do you interact with the public, and, especially, how do you respond to detractors?
Social Networks And Business Strategy
The importance of social networks today is practically unquestionable. As a company, it is vital to have a professional and updated profile where your target audience can land when looking for information about it. Previously we have already referred to the evidence of the numerous benefits of using social networks as a company. They are multiple and evident, so it is essential to contemplate and implement social networks within the business strategy. This is to make the most of this communication channel’s numerous opportunities. For example, publicly including some elements of the business strategy, such as its mission, vision, and values, could be considered a good practice of transparency and proactivity that brings the company and its target audience closer and connected.
Uses Of Social Networks In Companies
The use of social networks in companies will depend on factors such as the sector to which it belongs, size, type, and product… At this point, it is essential to have well-defined objectives and a target audience since they will mark and define the company’s use of your profile on social networks.
As always, when we face a new corporate “adventure”, the first step in creating a social media marketing strategy is to clarify the purpose. We must define what our objectives are. Although the goals are not exclusive, it is convenient to focus on a few to establish what use we will make of said tool: Do we want to create or increase brand awareness? Create a new advertising channel. Increase traffic to our website? Build a relationship of trust and loyalty with customers.
When we already know where we want to go, we have to figure out who to turn to to get it. We must direct actions towards the right people and adapt our messages to them. We must know who our target audience is.
It is interesting to note that although social networks can currently be considered for commercial use, they are not pure commercial platforms. This has changed. Most of the RRSS we use every day now allow commercial transactions without having to leave the network, thanks to the integration of ecommerce platforms. The ultimate objective of all business activity is to increase sales. Still, the presence in the networks aims to build relationships with consumers, which, indirectly, should impact the company’s income statement.
Social networks can be used to carry out different types of communications depending on the company’s commercial activity, and they can also be used as an advertising tool. Some examples of use are: communicating promotions and offers, product launches, content that provides value and quality for the audience related to the activity carried out by the company, and speaking at upcoming events…
10 Tips For Managing a Company’s Social Networks
Once present as a company in the social networks we have selected as optimal for our business, achieving optimal management of the profile in networks would be advisable to take into account the advice we share below.
Tips for creating profiles on social networks
These recommendations must be considered before launching into the networks to approach them more effectively. We have already anticipated some of them throughout the article. Continue reading to discover many more!:
- Define what our objectives are. Take time to establish the goals and objectives you hope to achieve through social networks.
- Define who our target audience is. Establishing who our audience is and to whom we want to direct our messages is crucial so that the resources allocated to these channels are attractive to the audience and profitable for the company.
- Understand that social networks have different uses. The use of the company’s social profiles will be marked by the objectives to be achieved.
- Which channels will help us achieve our goals and reach our target audience: not all social networks are the same. Each company has to choose the most appropriate for their products or services and those that help them contact their audience, and you have to adapt the messages to each of them and keep in mind that we cannot replicate the same content on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube, Twitter, Pinterest, etc. Each platform has its own “language” and “behavior”.
- Create a content plan: once the objectives, audience and channels are clear, it is necessary to develop a plan to generate engaging content that offers real value to our audience.
- Encourage followers participation, create a conversation and show customers, current or potential, that we care about their opinions, demands, needs, and criticism… You have to connect with the audience, involve it and engage it. Social networks are an optimal tool to achieve the commitment and loyalty of consumers or users.
- Two-way: Organizations often tend to generate a multitude of one-way communications without taking the time to listen to the reaction of the recipients of the messages. In the networks, customer comments provide valuable clues to reorient our marketing or commercial actions.
- Always respond to comments: It’s frustrating for social media users to interact with a brand and not get a response. The presence in social networks only makes sense if the company is willing to interact. Otherwise, the public will penalize us.
- Use analytical tools: We must analyze the impact of network campaigns to find out what works and what doesn’t. Some offer tools of this type, and you can also find others developed by third parties, free to use. It is not just about collecting reports; we must analyze them and redirect our actions based on them.
- Do not feed the “trolls”: On the internet, we call users who publish, for various reasons, provocative or insulting messages with the primary function of being annoying. Companies must know when to respond publicly (always in a professional manner) or when to respond with silence so as not to fuel provocation, but they can never get carried away by it. For this, it would be interesting for the company to define and establish an action protocol that is activated in such situations to resolve most quickly and efficiently the possible reputational crisis that this type of comment could cause.
Is your company ready to launch into the networks? If it was essential to have a web page in the nineties, in the present decade, it is necessary to have a presence on the networks. The challenge is to manage them correctly to maintain the company’s reputation.
