Pleasures & Pitfalls of Social Media & Your Business

Pleasures & Pitfalls of:Social Media &Your Business

So, what is social media?

Dare we try and define it?

Yep…we dare.

Our definition:

Social media: user-generated content shared digitally between members of a community.*

(That community could be everyone online!)

Below = NOT social media:

…they are just tools.

The tools will change….

…but the “work” (in this case, sharing content & engaging)

is here to stay.

Bet on it.

Benefits for your business:

① Your customers are there.

Pew Internet:

78% of U.S. adults (18+) are online 65% of those online use social

networking sites 43% of those that use social

networking sites did so yesterday.

Benefits for your business:

① Your customers are there.

② They are probably talking about you.

What do they do?

Like your business (Facebook) Check in (Facebook, Foursquare) Post reviews (Yelp, Google Places, etc.) Post tips (Foursquare) Compliment/complain (Twitter, Facebook) Shoot/upload pix (All of the above

and more, like Flickr, etc.)

…and everyone (in their communities) knows it!

Benefits for your business:

① Your customers are there.

② They are probably talking about you.

③ You can ENGAGE them!

What is engagement?

Connecting with your audience and evoking an emotional involvement or commitment.

Done well, engagement can be:

Marketing Public relations Brand-building Customer service or a simple, smile-inducing display of your

organization’s personality…

JetBlue = human (and funny)

Source: JetBlue

Successful engagement =

Making it all about them, not about you.

So, pitfalls?

Establish your:

Purpose for using social media and each tool

“Rules of engagement” for employeesNegative posts/tweets/comments

Crisis situations

Process for guiding people to more appropriate channels (phone, email, etc.)

Establish your:

Social media policy!Who can post on behalf of the organization, what happens if employees post negatively on their personal accounts, etc.

It doesn’t have to be complicated.

The biggest mistake:

Ignoring the fact that your audience members are using social media, and anything they say will be said whether you are using social media or not.

The conversation is taking place.

The question is, will you participate?

cdmckinsey@mckinseydevelopment.com mckinseydevelopment.com facebook.com/mckinseydevelopment @McKinseyIMC

Thank you!