Social Media Marketing

In the Beginning…

Prior to launching any social media application, it would be helpful to survey a sample of employees, distributors and clients to determine:

• who is using social media
• which sites/applications they prefer
• what types of information/connections are they looking for
• how often they access their social media accounts
• what times they are most likely to be online.

Social media needs to be a company-wide project with IT fielding tech questions, Sales generating leads and Manufacturing/R&D getting customer feedback to improve/develop products. Through social media training, employees can better understand the roles of others in the company and present a unified company persona to the public. However, the company will also need to invest time in training internal users in the use, protocol and etiquette of social media marketing; it is the company’s responsibility to establish purposes and clear guidelines for when/how/by whom the tools are to be used. If other departments understand their role within the organization’s online community, they will be more likely to participate and become a more valuable resource to external users.