This week I looked at the tremendous opportunity that social networking has in building on-line communities. By developing a strategy that is designed to build trust through engagement, education and entertainment, the potential exists to create active, vibrant and supportive communities and networks that will add value for an organization. Unfortunately, we have a tendency to use the terms social networking and social media interchangeably when we talk about Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social networking sites. Consequently their is a tendency to view these tools as an extension of traditional advertising channels, rather than as a more complex set of communication channels.
In traditional advertising, you identify who your audience is and determine the appropriate channels for reaching it. If you want to reach a particular demographic of woman you might choose running a commercial on Oprah or for a particular demographic of men you might look at ESPN. The point is, your media adviser or advertising agency will tell you the frequency and programs that will provide you with the greatest opportunity to reach your audience, based on your budget. The audience already exists, you are simply tapping into it. Social media channels would fit into this strategy since it is possible to broadcast your message to different demographics as well, with the added benefit that depending on the channel, your add could be sitting on a page of someone who you already know has an interest in what you are promoting.
One of the true benefits of social media is that there is little direct cost if you can deliver your message to a community that has already identified itself by "liking" your Facebook Page, or subscribing to your YouTube Channel. But, in order to receive this return on investment, you must draw your audience in, and once they are in, keep them there so they will hear your message. This is where the complexity of the medium will determine your rate of success or failure.
Social networking platforms are the tactics that you employ to build your community by establishing the relationship between the organization and the individual. That relationship can be fostered in any number of ways, but the key is developing a strategy by determining who your audience is, and what valuable content you can provide them that peaks their interest. In this environment, your audience is not organized in way that they can easily hear you. You have to find them and help them discover the value of staying tuned in.
Have you ever compared the number of tweets to followers on a Twitter profile? If you are tweeting a lot to a small audience, and that audience is not growing over time, think about why that is the case? Is your intended audience utilizing Twitter? Does your audience find any value in your tweets? Many companies, advocacy groups and political campaigns fail to understand this and consequently end up speaking to an empty or near empty room.
Identify Your Audience - Provide Them With Value
Too often so called "social media experts" will tell you that you need to be on all of the channels before they have identified if you can reach your audience on them. That is like saying to a local business that you need to be on TV, radio, and billboards, when in reality, a simple coupon in your local newspaper can achieve your goal. You pick the medium based on the audience, it is not that complicated.
Since we know that 41.6% of Americans are on Facebook, and that they are spending on average 8 hours a month surfing the site, Facebook would be a logical choice for most organizations. Statistically, 42% of your audience is there and participating in some way. If your message or product reaches across all demographics then it makes sense to create your audience and spend time converting those leads into customers, advocates or voters. There is a cost for implementing a social media strategy, but if effective, it should substantially reduce your overall advertising budget. Of course, since 58% of your potential audience resides elsewhere, you would be wise to fine tune that strategy as well.
However, if your target audience are people over 65, only 7.2% have a Facebook account. The question you should ask yourself is do I spend significant time trying to build a community that has the potential to reach a small percentage of my audience, or am I better off creating a Facebook advertisement to reach that audience, and devote my community building elsewhere. As in all business decisions, available resources will drive that decision.
Build Your Community and Create Your Audience
Will someone want to become part of your community if the only words they hear are about you? If someone walks up to you at a party and tells you how great they are and why you should be doing business with them, do you look for the first excuse to get away, or do you spend the rest of the evening with them? Conversely, if the conversation is one that provides you with valuable information that is beneficial, you might choose to continue the conversation or get together at a later date. The general rule of thumb in social networking is spend 70 to 80% of your time relationship building, and just 20 to 30% communicating your message.
Granted, there are those who will tune in to just listen to you go on about yourself. But how many more stayed away from that conversation? Though you might have success building a community that you provide little value too, imagine the community and ultimately the audience you could have if you spent time educating, entertaining, and engaging them.
For any organization whose goal is to create an on-line community, it must identify who their audience is, and develop a strategy to have them WANT to become part of the community. If it is an advocacy organization its audiences might include politicians, executive and legislative branch staff, advocates, news media, bloggers, donors, etc. Each audience will view the organization differently, and each will want to receive some value for participating.