Should a Brand Use Social Media?

Should a brand be on YouTube, Facebook or Twitter? The answer depends on context. The phenomenon that is social media has meant that many brands or businesses want to leverage it – in many cases before they understand it. There’s a brilliant quote by Avinash Kaushik, Analytics Evangelist at Google that sums this eagerness up:

Social media is like teen sex. Everyone wants to do it. Nobody knows how. When it’s done, they’re surprised it’s not better.

As with any other medium, we don’t recommend you dive in head first without knowing your audience or what you want to achieve.

Take Twitter for example. It was founded in 2006 as a fun and casual way to share your thoughts with others around the world. But as one of the co-founders, Biz Stone, admitted in a recent interview with The Age (25/02/10), Twitter is no longer considered fun and casual, but has changed to being a real-time “information network for discovering and sharing information”.

People seek instant information and Twitter gives it to them. It broadcasts information succinctly and quickly to those interested in your brand.

Two brands that have been hugely successful using Twitter are Starbucks coffee and Dell computers. Why? Because they follow the basic principles of engaging with their fans:

1. Understand the environment
Twitter is about contributing. It’s about being part of a whole. It’s an extension of one’s own brand. So don’t expect the majority of followers to interact with you. A 2009 study by Heil & Piskorski showed that 90% of the content is generated by 10% of users, but that does not mean that the majority aren’t listening or letting others know.

2. Add a return for investment
Dell computers have used Twitter to offer their followers exclusive offers and have reportedly generated US$6.5 million in sales as a result. Both Starbucks and Dell also listen to their followers about how they can improve their products and customer experience.

3. Dedicate resources
Twitter is a real-time broadcaster of information, so if you are receiving customer feedback, positive or negative, you must be able to respond promptly to be seen as credible. Again, the two examples here do a brilliant job.

Which brings us back to the question – should a brand use social media?
Yes, if it fits a strategy to expand the brand online, to get people talking about the brand, generate awareness, seek out ideas and look for opportunities to improve customer support.
No, if there aren’t enough resources to dedicate or if the commitment to the network isn’t genuine.