The most powerful asset of any company is the customer list. Inventory, buildings, computer systems, and location pale in comparison when compared to the value of the people who financially support your business. Being able to connect with your customers multiple ways is one of the top benefits of social media participation. Building satellite community centers on a variety of platforms provides access and insight to your most valuable asset.
Social media is a long term investment in your company's future. Effective participation requires time, planning, and resource allocation. When it is done well, the participants spend more and cost less than their non-social counterparts. On the surface, using free platforms (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and coming soon for businesses, Google+) appears to be a great idea. After all, they already have a community filled with people that match your customer profile. Unfortunately, there is a problem with using a third party platform as your primary community center.
Someone else holds the keys.
The terms of service for all of the platforms are eerily similar. Good lawyers protect their clients with little concern for the users. Social media platform companies hire good lawyers. There is a price to be paid for the "free" services. And, that price is access to your most valuable asset with the rights to use it.
The evolution of the social platforms from places to have conversations to store fronts was a natural progression. Communities have businesses to serve their members. In real communities, the businesses are free standing with autonomy over their practices and activity. In online communities established on social platforms, autonomy isn't an option. Every conversation, offering, and transaction is subject to the scrutiny of the platform's management team. Your information is their property. This includes customer data, product information, and order history. Required sharing of proprietary information is a high price to pay to use a service. Giving complete control to a third party is even worse.
Use the platforms but don't let them have the keys to your community center.
Every social media program needs a community center or hub. This is the place where public feeds move to private conversations, connections become relationships, and your company holds the access keys. Your hub may have several connection points such as the corporate blog, website, email access, and call center. How people get to it doesn't matter as long at the access is integrated and your team is working together.
Effective social media strategies guide people to the hub from the different platforms. Changes to social media sites have little effect on the big picture when the paths are properly configured. Platforms will come and go over time. Terms of service and features will change. Companies that allow others to hold the keys to their community center will always struggle to adapt to the changing environment. Companies that hold their keys control their own destiny. Who holds the keys to your community center?