Christine Kane, a graduate in Communication and Journalism, offered us a guest post discussing social media in small and large businesses. Which benefits more? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

Over to you, Christine…

Who Benefits More From Social Media Usage: Large or Small Businesses?

Every business, whether large or small, can benefit from social media usage in terms of internet marketing and brand awareness, but is it small or big business that benefits more? Do the large businesses, with their far-reaching fingertips, benefit more from social media? Or is it the smaller, humbler businesses that prevail?

Recognition and loyalty

It’s pretty obvious that everyone is benefiting in terms of brand recognition from using social media because of how quickly it allows you to expand your audience. And there’s no denying that big brand names such as Target, Exxon, or Best Buy are able to draw in large followings with a simple snap of their social media fingers because they’re such well-known brands already. Small businesses, on the other hand, have the most growing to do, and don’t bring in large followings right away because they have to build their brand recognition. However their followers are also much more likely to share the small business because if they’re following them then it’s out of a deep appreciation for the brand and they are usually interested in doing whatever they can to help grow it. This brand loyalty isn’t usually as strong with big businesses.

Ability to relate

One of the most influencing factors of social media is the ability to put a human “voice” behind a brand name. This helps alleviate the feeling of interacting with a nameless, faceless brand and fosters feeling of an actual relationship. Both businesses benefit from this, but small businesses are able to use this more to their advantage because there isn’t a large corporation fueling their posts, tweets, etc., which usually translates to having a more personal and less automated feel to them. Having a more personal feeling that people more easily relate to, gives them a stronger bond with the brand than those that boast hundreds or thousands of employees.

Interaction with the general public

Coming out on the forefront again, small businesses are much more likely to reach out to the general public for product reviews or to send out free samples than big businesses. This is because they’re trying to create brand awareness in exchange for product reviews or link-ups on social media sites, which helps further solidify a commitment to the brand and business. People love to feel appreciated and are usually much more active in promoting a brand that they feel appreciates them as well.

So who comes out on top?

While both small and big businesses will reap benefits from social media marketing, small businesses tend to see the most growth and brand commitment from their followers. This is born largely out of the personal connection their fans feel to them, and that connection is vital to successfully growing through social media usage. In terms of social media success, while big businesses may be able to implement more expensive marketing plans, when small businesses approach marketing in a more intimate way they’re likely to come out on top.

Thanks Christine!

This guest post is by Christine Kane from internet service providers. She is a graduate of Communication and Journalism, enjoys writing about a wide variety of subjects for different blogs and can be reached via email at: Christi.Kane00 @ gmail.com

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Pinterest: huge growth among scrapbooking individuals, a big pile-on from marketers, and then even bigger interest in the Pinterest terms and conditions.

Pinterest changed their terms and conditions in the last few days, and as Knoed Creative say, there’s good news and the same news: Pinterest will not sell your content—apparently this was never the intention—but there is still a potential copyright issue over the content that you post.

There’s a fascinating post from a copyright/internet lawyer suggesting that in practice, the risk is low. (Note: Rick Sanders isn’t offering legal advice on this, and neither am I!) Of course, if you are a business, then the risk is likely to be higher than if you were pinning as an individual.

So here’s the play-it-safe suggestion:

• only pin what you have the rights to, link, and attribute correctly
• if you want people to freely pin your content, offer a Pin It button to make it clear
• if you don’t want people to pin your content, you can add code to your site to prevent it

Assuming you do, in fact, represent a business, what could you use Pinterest for?

Scrapbooking (aka Pinterest) is all about the visual, so how about video or images of your products, employees, projects, or other images that tell your corporate story? Have a look at how the Kansas City Police do it…

Expanding this to other stakeholder areas… do you think your audience might be on Pinterest? If they are—and if it is worth your while to spend time on this rather than on other social networks—how about creating:

• a Careers-oriented pinboard, with images from your careers events mixed with branding images; perhaps multiple pinboards, depending on the different groups you’re trying to attract. The US Army has some great Careers best practices on their website; they also use Pinterest to reach different stakeholders
• a CSR oriented pinboard, with images of your CSR events and activities, employee projects… if you’re following the ‘show don’t tell’ rule, then show how CSR is integral to your products/services/culture. Examples: VanillaSoft’s microloan program on Pinterest
• a press-kit style pinboard for each product launch, or for other significant news: images, video, links back to your site for more information. I don’t know whether Heineken, for example, are on Pinterest, but a search for ‘Heineken’ on Pinterest reveals a lot of interest!

Think moodboard, to get the style right – and have a look at these marketing campaigns to see what others have done on Pinterest to promote their brand.

If you’re thinking about internal comms, bear in mind that at the moment, Pinterest isn’t offering private boards, or boards for groups, so you do need to assume that anything you pin will be publicly available. How about investigating Gimmebar, Juxtapost or Clipix for an alternative?

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Often the greatest advances can be made by a single individual or by micro organisations who, while not necessarily radical, grasp the essence of an issue where larger corporations faff with trying to meet the needs of their share- and stake- holders.

This is why I spend a lot of my time looking at minor players in the CSR world.  Sometimes such SMEs provide radical thinking, but more often than not they provide clear thinking, unrestrained by the social, political or economic factors which so often constrain larger corporations.

One such organisation is the Ibero-American Forum on Social Responsibility, hosted and organised by Perla Puterman.  A hint of what this collective is about can be seen straightaway in the group’s name.  It doesn’t limit itself to just Latin America  nor does it definitively align itself with North, Central or South American countries.

Instead it looks to build bridges between Spanish and Portuguese speaking countries, whether they are in the Americas or the Iberian peninsula.  When you add to the mix the rise of countries like Brazil and Venezuela in the global economy and the growing need for the improvement in responsible trading relations between European and South America, then you start to see the sense of an Ibero-American Forum.

Three core items for responsible media engagement

As well as hosting #RSEChat events on twitter, Perla also blogs on items of interest to the Ibero-American community.  Recently, one of these concerned how the media can take steps to make their reporting of business activities more “responsible”.

This should be seen within the context of supply chains, of which PR functions and media commentators are part and parcel.  So, seen from a business’ point of view three of the core values which Perla recommends are:

1. Ensure your news is disseminated in a fair and balanced way. 

   A recent change in UK law has meant brands can quote their competitors’ prices in their advertisements.  This is fair and balanced and should be encouraged.  So when you’re talking to a news organisation recognise the wider business world beyond the “stovepipe” of your individual business, and above all give details of your competitors’ products and services

2. Ensure the media organisation has procedures and controls in place. 

   No company wants to find itself misrepresented or to have given implicit support to an editor or publication which doesn’t support its core values.  Perla outlines some fundamental points which any PR worth their salt should take on board:

   • look for the Code of Conduct, which should define how sources are collated and privacy preserved
   • request the Procedures Manual, which defines how a conversation with sources will be handled according to the Code of Conduct
   • investigate how ethical standards are implemented by the media organisation, in particular how it facilitates comment and reaction to a published piece in a fair and equitable way.
3. How does the publication’s financing influence your own company? 

   It may be more than likely that one or more financial institutions have a stake in both your and the media company.  This should be recognised.  Furthermore, businesses often have direct stakes in media companies, or vice versa.

   In today’s shareholder environment, investment is deemed to be ownership and there is an obvious conflict of interest when a media company is an investor in a company it has regular communication from, even through a third party (or vice versa).  In order to be “responsible” and “transparent” your company should be willing to investigate and publish the financial links it has with any publication which carries its news or opinion.

There are many questions in CSR media engagement and there are few who have the right answers.  It’s a developing field which itself steers the CSR agenda as much as it is steered by it.

However this article should give food for thought for media professionals and, I hope, show that they have a responsibility just like any other procurement centre in a business.

Picture Credit: Engagement 1.0 by Mark Berry Reid under CC Attribution License.

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Decided you need a social media manager? Jeff Herbst has some pointers for how to hire the right person…

With Facebook valued at around $100 billion, Twitter and LinkedIn valued at around $8 billion a piece, and Google jumping into the social game, it is official: Social media is exploding.

It is no longer possible to ignore or deny the value that social media can have for your company or brand. It allows you to connect and interact with consumers in a genuine way that was never before possible.

It is real, and if you haven’t yet incorporated social media into your marketing strategy, you had better start soon. But you can’t simply jump on Twitter and start tweeting. It takes a comprehensive strategy to make social media work for your company.

Hiring a qualified social media manager is a great place to start. Here are seven tips for making sure you hire the right social media manager to handle your company’s social strategy:

1. Check their previous work

The right social media manager will be able to prove they can walk the walk. Like any other branch of your marketing strategy, social media has some well established success metrics. Facebook Insights provides daily feedback for the performance and growth of your brand’s reach. Facebook’s ad platform comes complete with a robust reporting system that calculates conversions and ROI. Twitter tracks followers, retweets and mentions.

A worthwhile social media manager will be able to point to previous work and illustrate how they were able to accomplish company ROI goals with a comprehensive social media strategy. Ask to see all of their work and the relevant metrics to prove that they have done more then set up a fan page and post the occasional tweet.

2. Ensure they have broad experience

The right social media manager must have broad and varied competencies. Managing social media will be a combination of advertising, community management, customer support, PR, crisis management, reporting and analytics. For this reason, you will want a jack-of-all-trades in the marketing sense. He or she must be able to handle it all, and all at once.

3. Look for traditional marketing experience

You may be looking for a social media manager, but you still want somebody who has a traditional marketing background. In order for them to understand your corporate goals and how social media fits your existing strategy, they should have experience that clues them in to the intricacies of managing a brand outside of social media. In other words, your social media manager must be more than a youngster who spends an obscene amount of time on Facebook.

4. Make sure they have social influence

Perhaps the most important success indicator is social influence. It takes more than regular posts to really develop social reach and engagement. You need a professional who has taken a company or brand and helped it establish real social influence.

Do a Klout check to see what they are made of. If the candidate’s past experience, or better yet their personal social brand, does not show a good influence ranking, they are probably not somebody you should entrust with your social strategy.

5. Are they versatile and current?

As good as a candidate’s previous strategies were, they might not be appropriate for your brand. Social media is, above all else, a dynamic and rapidly evolving industry. The right candidate will demonstrate adaptability and a love for unleashing the next great tactic. When interviewing, ask the candidate what his or her favorite new innovation is and how they would use it with your brand. Ask them about a recent Facebook platform change and what they think of it. Make sure they have a passion for being on the cutting edge and in the know.

6. Are they connected?

Another simple, yet great indicator that a candidate is right for your company is whom they are connected to in the social media world. You will want somebody that rubs elbows with other social media experts and stays in close contact with other innovators in the industry. Peruse their social network profiles and see who they have been talking and working with. As the old adage says, tell me who your friends are and I’ll tell you who you are.

7. Look for social grace

Last but not least, make sure your social media manager is in fact social. At its core, social media is marketing socially. A manger will be interacting with customers daily. Does the candidate come across as friendly and outgoing, or shy and hesitant? Chances are, a candidate blessed with social grace will be a more successful social media manager. After doing your own research, trust your instincts on this one.

Thanks, Jeff!

Jeff Herbst is a marketing strategist for MBA@UNC, the University of North Carolina, which allows students to receive an MBA online from a Businessweek top twenty ranked program. Outside of work he is an avid reader and kayaker.

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What do you think about The Network?

No, it’s not the latest dark cyber-thriller, but the newly launched newsroom on the Cisco site.

Unusually, it was launched with a YouTube video with cartoon characters and explosions; I don’t know of any other corporate site section launched on YouTube, do you? (If you do, please let us know in the comments below!)

There’s lots to like:

• The design is crisp and clean, and there is a range of good integration of social elements: Facebook, Twitter and Flickr, and a list of links to coverage of Cisco elsewhere. There’s even a widget showing news that can be embedded on your own website, should you want to. And comments are enabled.
• The topics covered are appropriate to the company, and there is an impressive list of contributing writers – each with a bio, links to their own online spaces, and a list of the articles by them available on this site (with dedicated RSS feed available).
• There’s a Topic Page Manager, who is named, and their Twitter handle provided. There’s even an image of each, though sadly, the videos have been removed from YouTube. This is a nice touch, and makes the topic pages more welcoming.
• And on the All News page, there’s a good range of filters, to make tracking down items of interest easier.

When you click through, some of the links go to newly designed pages (press releases and articles), and some (the blog links) to the pre-existing pages. This smart new design does make some of the older pages look a little dated in comparison…

What’s in it for the journalist?

The new press release pages include sections for Related Information (mostly photos) a link to the RSS feed, and Supporting Resources (though on at least one of the releases I looked at, these go to home pages rather than directly to useful information).

Note the record of the number of shares… while I have seen the number of likes, tweets and visits before, a record of the number of people who have emailed the page to another is unusual.

The Press Contacts page is nicely handled, with a dedicated email address and phone number for each contact, and an explanation of their interest area – so the visitor is more likely to find the right person. And the filter option here is a good idea, given the number of potential contacts.

Interestingly, there’s a ‘hands-off’ editorial approach, so it is much more of a news hub than a resource for those wishing to write about Cisco. Their aim is to create, curate and share content on relevant technology content, not simply to spit out corporate press releases.

The corporate resources are available via the footer, or by a small link in the top right services bar, which is where to find executive bios, contacts, and links to request B-roll and logos.

Typically, in a corporate newsroom or media section, there would be an image gallery, with images of executives, products, buildings… Alternatively, images of executives would be available for download with the executive biographies. Here, though, there is a PDF biography available, but not an image. This would seem to be a shortcoming, as it means that there is less that can be picked up and reused elsewhere. This may be part of the plan, though: their aim is to get repeat visitors, and to generate conversation on their site.

The YouTube-hosted videos can be picked up and embedded elsewhere, so it is really only the images that puzzle me. I haven’t found any indication that the images used as part of the press releases and on the site are available for reuse, but perhaps I missed something.

Curiously, the alerting service is hidden behind a small icon in the footer, and is SMS only, not email. Is this part of what seems to be becoming a trend, to reduce the alerting service options?

What do I think?

Overall, I like it, though I do wonder whether it provides enough of a resource for two key elements of their audience:

• journalists looking to cover the company
• bloggers looking to pick up and reuse content on their own sites

It will certainly provide a lot to mull over, for those of you responsible for maintaining the media sections of your own corporate websites.

What do you think? Let us know in the comments below…

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