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Social media: what is it, how does it work and why should you be doing it?
“The term social media reflects the sharing of information, experiences and opinions through a series of widely available, easy-to-use tools. Very simple, very public, very hard to ignore.”
Social media is booming. Each day, new reports surface concluding that the phenomenon is continually growing.
What makes up Social Media?
Social media describes online technologies and practices that people use to share opinions, insights, experiences and perspectives.
Social media includes:
·Blogs
·Microblogging (Twitter)
·Forums
·Social networks (MySpace or Facebook)
·Video sharing (You Tube)
·Picture sharing (Flickr)
·Podcasts
·Vidcasts
·Wikis
·Virtual worlds or communities (Second life)
According to the Social Media Report 2008:
Social media encourages the building of communities; Groups of people with common interests who interact with one another on varying subject matters.
More importantly, anyone can participate in these communities. Finding a group and joining in the conversation is very easy thanks to the wide variety of online tools available (which facilitate the finding and sharing of information.)
But what does that mean for brands? Quite simply, the balance of power has shifted – with control passing from the brands themselves to the consumers. Online audiences can choose the content they want to view and are free to comment on/share it with whomever they like, whenever they wish to do so. Brands must accept that they need to embrace this shift, rather than shy away from it, as this is a trend that looks set to continue.
We covered what social media is and how it works. So, why should you use it?
Blogging, and the reading of blogs, an important component of social media, is now a widespread activity, becoming increasingly impossible to ignore. The risk is: people will talk about brands with or without that company’s permission (in recent research, 34% of bloggers revealed they currently post opinions about products and brands on their blog.) It is therefore vital to be part of those conversations, or even to initiate them (such as through a company blog, with 36% of online users stating that they think more positively about companies who actually run their own blog).
It is important for individuals and companies alike to speak the first word. Several brands not currently using social media have taken a fall for it. On the other hand, companies utilizing social media have reaped the benefits.
Share of voice is a term that describes essentially that: the amount a certain brand is talked about in comparison with other brands. A share of voice analysis was done by immediate future for the 2008 Social Media Report. Communication in the digital world was measured, then analyzed, to determine which brands were most talked about and thus had the largest voice within social media networks.
The results:
Share of Voice for Top 25 Brands
The table presents the results from the 2008 research. IF Rank ‘08 represents the 25 most discussed brands across the selected social media sites, with last year’s results shown under IF Rank ‘07. The year on year change is also included, as well as the rankings for the Interbrand 2007 research and Millward Brown’s ‘Top 100 Most Powerful Brands’ 2008.
The bottom line is, it is becoming increasingly important for brands to be aware of social media and who is saying what about them. A proper outlet needs to be created for consumers to initiate and continue conversations, and eventually become advocates for the brand. It is important for brands to avoid controlling the conversation. Rather, by consistently monitoring and participating in the social network preferred by their audience, brands can begin to develop a powerful following of advocates, who will, in turn continue to spread the word on the brand’s behalf.
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