Effective use of social media is reaching a target market, rather than how many 'likes' a brand gets.
So said Brett Field, marketing executive at FedGroup Financial Services, during ITWeb's Social Media Summit, in Bryanston, this week.
When social media emerged, a lot of organisations banned their employees from using it, noted Field, but now most have realised the benefits of this tool and have even adopted it for business.
However, he said, most organisations are misguided in believing that the more followers they have, the more effective their social media strategy is.
"I can post a picture of Justin Bieber on my Facebook page and get millions of 'likes' instantly, probably from 13 year olds, but this will not be a true reflection of my real target audience that I would want to reach," said Field. "If you are to join social media, 'likes' are worthless; you can have lots of them, but you need to have the sort of information that those who matter to your business want to hear."
For Field, focusing on the 'unlikes' is much better than chasing 'likes'. "I always want to look at the 'unlikes' because they show that there is something I did that changed people's perceptions about my brand. I know that to get that person back may be a difficult job, but I need to go back and find out what I did wrong to chase them away."
He also pointed out that the people who are recruited via aggressive marketing and "grab campaigns" on social networks - which are tools to get people to like a brand or product - can also be useless in a social media campaign, as the number of likes eventually dwindle. Thus, organisations need to create content that people want to engage with.
Field believes social media should not be outsourced to a third party, arguing that it needs to be handled by someone who has a personal interest in the business. "Outsourcing social media is like outsourcing your love life to your parents. Yes, they can have more experience in love than you, but they won't have that personal attachment you have."
He added that some organisations are being held to ransom by agencies that control their entire social media activity to the point that they do not even have access. There is a tendency by organisations to over-rely on social media analytics when running campaigns, Field said. However, he urged organisations to go back to the fundamentals of advertising and focus on their target market. "Just getting statistics doesn't give you a true portrayal of what is going on."
Field is also of the view that any bad experience on a social media platform can be a "killer" to a business because negative comments are frequently discussed more than positive ones.
Concluding, Field stressed that business-to-business relations are gone and have been replaced by social media as a tool in consumer relations.
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