Selling Social Media

Selling social media to a company can be a very tricky task. It is not as east as it may seem, after all, essentially what you are trying to do is explain to a business why they should pay you to look at and manage free websites. This is something that gets very tricky. The average business person does not want to pay some one to do a job they believe they can do themselves. The biggest obstacle is convincing the businesses that the social efforts are worthy enough to consider a monetary investment.

Some tips I recommend in selling social media to businesses and clients:

• Show versatility!
  • Do not sell social media as just social media. Show how it can be integrated into any ad or PR campaign. Also show the different ways social media can be used outside the traditional sense of pushing products.
  • Show how it can be used to kick-start a consumer driven campaign.
• Prepare examples!
  • Show work of other businesses using social media to their advantage. Potentially show some competitor’s social activities as well.
• Sell yourself!
  • Do not sell the social sites. The employer already knows about the sites. Even if they do not really know all about the sites, they think they do and that is what matters. Sell your skills, you abilities, and what you can do for the company.
• Emphasize direct customer communication!
  • Show the potential market research tools that are available, at a significantly reduced cost than traditional market research  tools.
  • Also show the potential to get immediate feedback on products and services. This can allow for quicker detection of crises and immediate action when they occur.
• Active consumer base!
  • Having an active social media presence gets your consumers active in communicating about the company. Active consumers think about the companies they like more often than those who do not.
  • Customers can also directly participate in campaigns and help spread your messages.

While doing this, don’t forget to keep mentioning how you are able to do all of this for the company. Right now, the traditional small business owner thinks that to have a social media presence all they need to do is post/share random posts that pertain to the company’s products and services. They do not try to start conversations. It is treated as a thing you update every once in a while and forget about it until the next update. Once you break that barrier, then you can begin making progress in selling the importance of social media.

Some Fresh Comments

Victoria Evans:
http://victoriasfunblog.wordpress.com/2012/03/20/dont-overload-yourself/#comment-45

 

Katie Poole:
http://rebekahkatherine.wordpress.com/2012/03/19/if-i-knew-then-what-i-know-now/#comment-90 

New FreshMAN Year

If I could go back to my Freshman year of college I have some things that I would love to change. I came into my freshman year looking for a fresh start on life. I wanted to see what all the fuss was about college, I was excited to finally be away from my family, and most of all, I was finally able to escape all the labels that had been chasing me since middle and high school. All these factors influenced my behaviors my freshman year. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. I thought I did, but I really did not.

I think I would focus most of my efforts on my first semester, rather than my entire year. First semester was a rough time for me. I treated college a bit like high school. I was shy, nervous around people, and generally did not speak, except to those that I knew. I was on top of all of my work, which was good, except for one class, which was bad. I guess mostly everyone has that one class they wish they could go back and erase or ignore without consequence. It wasn’t that the class was hard, I just did not like the amount of work that came with it. Looking back on it, it was nothing compared to all the work I do now. I wonder why I let it get to me so much. I want to go back and scream at myself so that I will do all the work the first time. Even though it was not the best semester, I will say that it helped me get focused on my education, and I was able to recover very well.

Other than class, I would be more social. One of the main things I was excited about when I came to Georgia Southern was the fact that I would have a fresh start in all aspects of life. I would be with different people who I had not been in school with since Kindergarten. I could completely revamp my social image. This is something that I believe I have met some success with now. It took longer than I wanted it too, but I think it worked. No one would be able to recognize me from high school, or even freshman year. I think that if I had been more social and open to people, I could have avoided a bunch of mistakes my freshman year.

So the moral of all of this is:
You want a new start in life? Use your freshman year of college to kick-start some changes!
Want to go places in life? Don’t slack off! Every class counts!

Commenting About Being Social in a Form of Media

Jackson McGahee:
http://jacksonmcgahee.wordpress.com/2012/03/08/where-is-social-media/#comment-40

 

Katie Palmer:
http://kp01270.wordpress.com/2012/03/08/advantagesdisadvantages-to-social-media/#comment-68

A Short Post About Social Media

Social media is a new world for businesses and people alike. All the advantages and disadvantages of the new media are still being discussed, discovered, and developed. For businesses that like to have a tight grip on every communicated message, social media is viewed as a very bad threat. Those companies that embrace social media, use it as a very powerful tool.

Some of the advantages of social media include having direct and immediate feedback with your customers. You can communicate with them in ways that were never possible, until now. Companies can share reviews of their products, share other customer reviews, have full length conversations with individuals, help solve customer responses, see customer reaction to products, and even give insights into the company workplace. All of this happens in real-time with customers. People can feel like they actually know a company if they manage their social media properly.

All of those same reasons are why companies who want tight control over their messages feel social media is bad. If a customer has a bad experience with a company, and the companies social networks are not helping out the customer very much, the customer can then share their negative experiences with the company’s social networks and, if bad enough, those negative impressions can spread and become incorporated into the company’s image. Social media nonrestrictive in what users can share with each other, even if it involves company messages. This is why a company needs to monitor social networks and be able to respond to issues as soon as they happen. Whether a company is on a social network or not, they are being discussed on it.

In my opinion, I think the advantages of social media far outweigh the potential negatives. Social mediums allow companies, that would not normally have huge advertising budgets, to communicate and advertise directly with their customers, no matter how expansive they are. The critical component is that the company MUST manage their networks and give the person in charge of the social networks some free rein to communicate with customers. Now that social media is part of the world, integrated into so many people’s lives, it does absolutely no good to block and ignore social media.

Dreaming of a Job Comments

Rob Roberts:
http://robertaroberts12.wordpress.com/2012/03/01/what-is-a-dream-job-3/#comment-70

 

Kelsey Mulder:
http://km04662.wordpress.com/2012/02/28/dream-job/#comment-45

My Mom Said I Would Never Get ANYWHERE with These Games!

In thinking about a possible dream job for me, I came up short. I know there are jobs that I want to have, but there is no single job out there that would call my “dream job.” I have more of a dream industry. It’s really not that difficult to guess which industry I’m talking about. All one would need to do is take a gander at my WordPress page and you will find links to my Steam profile, a page that describes my “Hybrid” ego, my banner with my “Desolate Hybrid” identity, and even my background with the “Republic of Gamers” logo on it. If you haven’t guessed it by now, I want to work in the video game industry.

People seem to get confused when I say this. I get asked questions like “What do video games have to do with PR,” and etc. The fact is video game companies rely heavily on PR professionals for a multitude of things. For example, if a company, or publisher, has a very successful franchise, they will have a designated “Community Manager.” The community manager is in charge of the social networks for that franchise, maintaining the website forums, providing content that will keep the community interested in the series, and etc.

For example: one of the companies I would love to work for is Electronic Arts. They are the publisher of two of my favorite video game franchises. Those are Mass Effect and Command and Conquer (C&C). Each franchise has its own community manager who does various things for the community. They also assist in producing content that relevant to the franchise to help stir up excitement, or keep people interested in the games. One of the things the community manager for Command and Conquer was in charge of was an initiative called “Battlecast Primetime.” This was a video series that was produced every couple of weeks by EA to showcase matches between players, promote future C&C titles, showcase community members and mods, and keep the community thriving. It was a huge success. The Battlecast project brought in thousands of members into the C&C community. The Mass Effect community manager has been tasked with getting excitement for Mass Effect 3. One of the ways they are doing this is with the BioWare Pulse initiative. This is a series that features interviews with the developers of the franchise and an exclusive “behind the scenes” look at the creation of the game. Each episode focuses on one specific part of the game. They also showcase community members and  events that BioWare attends.

Here is an example of the Battlecast project.

Here is an episode of BioWare Pulse.

Another company I would love to work for is Razer. They create high-end PC gaming peripherals; such as mice, keyboards, mouse pads, etc. While they may not have a direct community manager that manages franchises, they do have a company community manager. This company relies heavily on social networks and knowing their market to make sales. They make an appearance at almost every trade show and event, which I imagine requires a bunch of planning and coordination. They also have a professional gaming team that requires a PR professional to manage and keep them involved in the Major League Gaming (MLG) events. Then there is announcing and hyping new product launches. I think it would be exciting to work for them.

It takes the skills of a PR professional to keep something like this thriving. These people manage social networks, they get to know the audience and how to keep them interested, they even attend,help organize, or even host major events for the company. It is not a traditional public relations job, which is something I find very appealing. It is a very niche field and requires a very specific type of knowledge. This is where I believe I can shine. I am a very technology oriented person; however, my background is in communications. I feel this combination is uncommon. I have had experience building and managing a company’s social media accounts. I think this skill gives me a competitive edge coming out of college.

Right now I am getting heavily involved in each of the communities listed above. I am making a community foot hold before I approach the company directly. Strong community members actually do have some level of influence with in the company. Also, the community members know what is going inside the company, so if a position opens up, the community will know first. I am making professional connections on LinkedIn as well as my other social networking accounts. I am just trying to make my mark any way I can so that when I graduate, I already have foothold in the industry. This is something I am very passionate about and I am not going to let anything stand in my way.

Pinteresting Comments

Victoria Evans:
http://victoriasfunblog.wordpress.com/2012/02/21/beware-pinterest-can-be-addicting/#comments

 

Khrys Dent:
http://iamkhrys91.wordpress.com/2012/02/21/pinterest-is-it-your-type-of-social-media-site/#comments

Are you Pinterested?

I am not a member of the Pinterest community at the time of writing this blog post. That is not to say that I do not see the value in the site or may not become a member of it some day.

This blog is going to be a narration and exploration of Pinterest. I am probably going to discover new ideas and potentials for the site throughout the course of writing this blog, so if you get lost, it is ok. This is an exclusive look into my thinking process.

Since I am not a member of the site I am having a difficult time understanding how it can be so powerful. I know if you find an image you like, you share/post it on your board and it links back to the original content. That is useful if you have a board that many people frequent. I guess this site is encouraging sites to have creative content up so that more people will share it on their boards? If so, this is a positive for the internet as a whole. As we saw with the growth of Facebook, it changed the way some websites functioned. It made the internet much more communicative and open than it ever was. If Pinterest has the same impact, we could see an internet that is much more visually creative than ever before. So I guess the goal is to become the most eye-catching thing on the internet first?

I can imagine the importance a site like this would have on the artistic community, you create a visually stunning piece, you now have a visual way to show and it watch it spread. However, I am having issues with seeing the value behind it in terms of a corporate facilitator. Unless it is also used to share products and product images. So then I could see the uses. I wonder how the corporate culture is going to respond to such an artistic shift in presentation. Will we see products that are designed more elegantly? Packaged more creatively? Websites that are explosions of color and art? Who knows? I would love to see another revolution of the web jump started by a social media site. So the goal of Pinterest, to me now, seems to create something that could go visually viral that people will want to have displayed on their boards so that it will link back to the originator of the content. If you are not an artist, or make very pretty products, then I wonder what the use of a site that is built off of visually appealing things is to you/your company.

For example, lets take any local arcade and/or bowling ally. I wonder what their use would be in a site like Pinterest. Unless you can take pictures of individuals having insane amounts of fun, WITH A SIDE OF FUN, and link that back to the business page(s). Then I could see more use in it for a business like that. But what about a company that makes…something that is not the most attractive looking…GOT IT! What about companies that makes bolts? There is no real way to make a bolt attractive…that I can think of…I’m sure there is a way…eh ok, maybe you can make virtually any product look good.

If I am in any way correct in my assumptions about the site, I could see huge PR potential in the site. You could get HUGE amounts of community involvement to make things that link back to your site(s). You can see what other people are creating and perhaps even be inspired by some of the artwork that other people are creating and potentially use it in the company’s creative design. This would inspire more people to be involved on your page(s) if they see fellow community members work being displayed through the company.

I wonder how company pages work on Pinterest. This is something I need to investigate.

Keep in mind, that as of now, I do NOT have a Pinterest account. Anything mentioned above is based purely on observations and other non-official forms of Pinterest communication. The post above is essentially a rambling of my mind trying to deduce the usefulness of Pinterest. As I mentioned, this was an exclusive look into the workings of my brain. If you are confused or get lost while reading, I am sorry. Just imagine what it is like having that inside your head every day!

That being said, I do not know if I would recommend it to a friend, as I am not a user myself. I think if I had a friend who is an aspiring artist I would without a doubt, if my understanding of the site is in any way representative of the actual operations of the site.

I have been contemplating creating an account. The only problem is, it would just be ANOTHER social site to manage and maintain. I am not sure if I want that now. It is difficult to say if it will be a fad or not. I guess it depends on what you consider a fad. As with all things, it will peak and decline. Everything does. To some people it will be a fad. To others it wont be. Why else are there so many social media sites? The question is not whether Pinterest will be the fad, but will the IDEA be the fad. That is what is important. Only time can answer that question.

Something the Pinterest team will have to deal with if they wish to expand is this:

Some comments on my Facebook page regarding Pinterest

 

Real Comments for a Fake Holiday

Cait Bailey:
http://socialcbailey.wordpress.com/2012/02/14/valentines-day/#comment-58

 

Rob Roberts:
http://robertaroberts12.wordpress.com/2012/02/15/the-holiday-of-love-or-loneliness/#comment-59