Well, this has been a very exciting week for me here as an intern at Net-Results. Everyone here has been working their fingers to the bone in a company-wide collaboration to redesign our website. There are basically an unlimited number of changes that can be made to a website, and with several different, opinionated and vocal people working together the process to narrow it down has been…testing. One huge aspect of the website redesign has been the company culture we want to portray. We all know what “company culture” is but what actually shows it to us? The phrase “I know it when I see it” comes to my mind personally. It’s hard to point out explicitly what shows a company’s culture, so I was assigned to propose a social media strategy to showcase the fun, professional, and dynamic workplace that I get to come into every day. Since I learned quite a bit along the way, I wanted to share it in Internlandia.
Using Social Media to Benefit YOU
I have to be honest, when I was asked to create an outline of a social media strategy to show our company’s culture I was… overwhelmed. I decided to pick a few of the most popular social media platforms and analyze the audience of each one. After discussing it with Matt, the boss, he gave me some great insight into how we use our social media at Net-Results. Matt told me “it is imperative for Net-Results (and any other company) to continually monitor and measure our social temperature. Each tool brings a different perspective, a different persona, and we need to ensure we are messaging accordingly with each tool.” Tweet This! The second Matt said this, the heavens opened up for me. Matt helped me see that by posting different types of content on each different social media platform, we’re in effect delivering relevant messaging to the right person at the right place. Sort of reminds me of the goals of Marketing Automation.
Social Media Goals
As social media is a big interest of mine, I started to compile a list of each social media tool we utilize and began to quantify which of them was delivering the biggest bang for our buck. My project is focused on company culture so that was where I started. As I began to investigate, I needed to know what the goals were for each social media platform. It was great to fall back on the expert advice in house, and when I shared my project with the team, I received great feedback. I learned that the number one social media goal is that:
The goal is to focus on relevance. Ensure that yours is increasing, your message is on target, and that you’re constantly monitoring and adapting it in an agile fashion.
After much deliberation I settled on 6 major social media platforms that I thought could be used to show a company’s culture the most effectively. I wanted to outline each one and create a “social media manifesto” for our company to use when deciding what to post on social media. I looked at posts in one of two ways: social or informative. I thought it was a great idea to decide on a number of posts per week to be posted on each platform; platforms like Twitter will most likely have a lot more posts than Instagram for example. Because time is money we also thought it was imperative to monitor the reactions we had from other users for each social platform. We decided to look at each platform individually to find what metrics would help us understand our social media reach and how well our efforts were working.
Social Media Platforms
I looked at Facebook first; I felt it was generally the most used social media platform. Facebook is unusual because it is used for both social posts as well as informative posts. At Net-Results we utilize Facebook to post informative business content as well as, social information, pictures and posts. You can visit our Facebook page here. And don’t forget to like us!
FACEBOOK Quicktip:
- Relevant and engaging content, video, polls, links both business and social
- Social culture: pictures/ posts to share culture
- Track: likes/ posts/ fan reach/ organic reach/ weekly engaged users
Next I looked at LinkedIn. We’d love to “Link In” with you and you can connect with us here. LinkedIn seemed to be geared toward strictly business use. The Net-Results LinkedIn profile contains straightforward business information, re-posts for our clients, partners, and integration points. It’s all business all the time.
LINKEDIN Quicktip:
- Business related posts
- Re-post new content and giving love to our partners, clients and integration partners
- Track: follows/ referring traffic/ group members/ discussions
Google+ is an up and coming social stream and it appears to be a platform that is used for both social and informative posts. I found the major difference between Google+ and Facebook was how focused on Search Engine Optimization Google+ is.
GOOGLE+ Quicktip:
- Relevant and engaging content, video, polls, links
- SEO focused
- Both social and business focused
- Track: circle adds/ follows/ mentions
The next obvious choice for an important social media platform was Twitter. Used heavily for both social and informative posts, most companies post tweets more often than posts to any other platform. This platform has the most room for a company to decide how much of their social culture they would like to show. It is easy to retweet a funny (but relevant) tweet or link from some one else, so do it! Follow us on Twitter here.
TWITTER Quicktip:
- Relevant and engaging content, video, polls, links
- Social posts: pictures/ posts
- Promote content from other social media
- Track: retweets/ followers/ mentions
- Send “Thanks for the follow” messages to new followers
As I started to get into platforms that were more socially oriented I started to look at Instagram. Instagram is primarily used for social posting for individuals, however more and more companies are beginning to create Instagram pages. By posting pictures of “everyday life” at your company Instagram is an awesome way to really showcase your company’s culture and activities.
INSTAGRAM Quicktip:
- Social and culture based posts
- Funny, engaging
- Weekly post that is the same each week
And finally, Pinterest. Although Pinterest has stereotypically been seen as a platform for women to plan their future wedding, meals, and outfits, when used correctly it can serve as a resource for customers or a great venue to showcase more company culture. In our local community, there are several start-ups that are using Pinterest-style curations for branding and messaging purposes. It is definitely a social media platform that more and more companies are starting to actively use. We’ve begun using it too. You can see what we’re curating here.
PINTEREST Quicktip:
- Boards with content and culture
- Track: pins/ follows
- Good way to share brand messaging concepts and receive feedback on it
Like I said, I had a very busy week! Although creating profiles on all of these social media platforms may seem like overkill, it was a great exercise for me to understand the impact of social tools. Likewise it’s definitely important for any business to understand the features and benefits of these tools as they craft their own social strategy. Using social media strategically can make or break the way people see your company and in the end, either help create new business for you or drive your customers away. And, don’t forget to follow me on Twitter!
