Adapt or Die - Part 2.

Throughout this series of blog posts we are endeavouring to do two things. The first is to bring about awareness of what is happening around us that affects the value or very existence of our business. The second is to put forward suggestions of what we can do about it. Without the power to adapt, you will be missing a critical success factor in your business.

In our first article, Adapt or Die – Part 1, we looked at how companies have gone backwards or even disappeared due to the influence of the business disrupters.

To mark Social Media Day, we look at what is happening in the field of social media marketing? When a company like Microsoft purchases the social business site LinkedIn for around $26 billion, you have to ask yourself the question "Is there something happening here that I need to investigate?" You cannot afford to ignore social media and social business sites in your marketing mix today.

Before the advent of social media, business owners used to say "Half of my advertising is wasted, I am just not sure which half" It's similar today in the world of social media, although there are more opportunities to measure the effect of your advertising through the metrics offered by the sites and the analytics you can perform through Google and other sites. There will be a lot of experimentation, and with a social media/marketing mix, you can never be quite sure what was the final prompt for a customer to decide to contact you. However if you don't activate now, you won't get on top of this. There is a guarantee that some of your efforts will be wasted, but that will happen even if you hire the best expert in town.

The first task is for you to create a social media strategy, which should be built after full consultation and a workshop session with your staff.

You can start to build that strategy by answering some questions:

What is your main goal? It should always be the first question asked in any decision about your business. You could either adopt an indirect approach, focusing on brand-awareness and image, or a more direct one talking about the products/services you provide.

What channel is appropriate for that message and with what frequency do you want to get that message out?

What is your message on social media going to be?

Who in your company is going to design that message?

Who in your company is going to spend the time learning social media and doing the posting, article writing, editing, and commenting in the various channels?

What is your time and money budget for you to achieve the point immediately above?

Choose your channels according to the following guidelines

Use LinkedIn to connect to people and companies you might want to do business with. Don't just connect with anyone for the sake of having many connections. Post articles and join conversations via groups using such contributions to establish yourself as an expert. Offer value as you would in any networking situation. Don't just barge in and expect people to immediately start doing business with you.

Use Facebook (1.6 billion users) if you sell to consumers and you believe you can create a community around your product or service. For this purpose, create a business page on Facebook, being careful not to mix your personal page with business. That might annoy your friends and furthermore your personal page won't be an asset you can sell when you come to sell your business.

Use Twitter and Google plus to link to such articles, utilising hashtags(#) that will ensure your tweets are noticed.

Use YouTube if this medium is absolutely necessary for you to demonstrate your message Be very careful that you don't derogate from your brand by putting out substandard material.

Use Instagram and Pinterest if your marketing involves pictures, images or similar media.

All of the above channels invite you to use their cost free mode, but deep down they want you to upgrade to a paid subscription or offer you incentive to pay money to advertise/boost/promote yourself and your company.

The problem with social media is that you are in the hands of companies like Google and Facebook who are still developing their own business models and can change an algorithm that affects your status on their sites overnight. They can act like landlords who will look at your business nicely situated on the main road, flourishing and vibrant, then in the stroke of a mathematical formula move your business around the corner where there is no traffic. You can go from someone very popular to someone very hard to find unless you pay money for a better location. They are not doing this because they don’t like you, but rather so as to maximise the user experience. 

And just when you thought it was safe to go back to your computer, suddenly everybody is talking about smart phones, video, artificial intelligence, bot-chats and the suggestion that it will be messaging services taking over the way we communicate with each other and buy goods and services on the Internet. I don’t want to talk too much about these right now as they will form the subject of an upcoming post.

I think the above would be a good start someone who wants to put their business on the digital marketing map. I simply say that you should not take on more than you can handle and should try and master one channel before moving to the next. Of course you can be doing everything and be everywhere if you have the resources to apply to the program. In the meantime, take it easy, learn the channels and hone your message so that it is authentic, authoritative and invites if not demands people to do business with you.

In future posts, we will look at more advanced programs, including mobile campaigns, bot-chats and more in-depth advice around the marketing opportunities that are available to you.

Tony Arena

Owner @ BCI Business Brokers, 30 years of experience in selling businesses

https://www.bcibusinessbrokers.com.au/

Want to know more about the value of your business?

https://www.growandsellyourbusiness.com/

Follow our "Adapt or Die" Series: 

Adapt or Die - Part 1

Adapt or Die - Part 3 

Adapt or Die - Part 4